or  The 


OLd&^^U5H  ?6vrEK 


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THE    ART 


OF    THE 


OLD    ENGLISH     POTTER 


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in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/artofoldenglishpOOsolorich 


THE   ART 


OF  THE 


OLD   ENGLISH   POTTER. 


BY. 


L   M.  SOLoC^cr-Cf 

NIVGRSITY 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  THE  AUTHOR. 


NEW  YORK: 
D.     APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

I,   3,  AND  5   BOND  STREET. 
1886. 


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PREFACE. 


N  the  first  edition  of  this  work  we 
thought  it  necessary  to  narrate  at 
length  how  our  curiosity  and  interest 
were,  on  our  arrival  in  England, 
aroused  by  the  discovery  of  two  quaint  pieces 
of  Salt-glaze,  seen  one  day  on  the  window-sill 
of  an  old  cottage  in  Staffordshire.  How  we 
devoted  our  leisure  to  the  research  of  speci- 
mens of  the  various  kinds  of  pottery  made  in 
the  district,  feeling,  at  every  fresh  find,  our 
admiration  increase  for  a  ware  which,  to  our 
astonishment,  had  so  far  escaped  the  notice  of 
the  Continental  collectors,  and  how  it  was  that 
we  were  drawn  into  sketching  and  etching  some 
curious  pieces  of  our  collection  for  our  own 
pleasure,  and  the  gratification  of  some  friends  at 
a  distance  ;  a  labour  which  ultimately  led  to  the 
publication    of    the    present    work.       These    con- 

217006 


VI  PREFACE.   ' 

sideratlons  would  have  been  here  out  of  place ; 
the  text,  written  principally  to  accompany  and 
elucidate  the  etchings,  has  had  to  undergo  some 
modification,  as  the  examples  with  which  we 
illustrate  these  pages  are  taken  from  various 
sources,  instead  of  being  selected  from  materials 
in  our  own  possession  ;  consequently,  all  that 
merely  referred  to  these  special  pieces  had  to 
make  room  for  remarks  of  a  more  general 
application. 

Nevertheless,  in  venturing  to  reprint  our  in- 
complete essay,  our  plan  will  remain  the  same. 
We  must  repeat,  in  fairness  to  ourselves,  that 
our  ambition  never  went  so  far^s  to  attempt  a 
complete  history  of  English  pottery  ;  our  under- 
taking is  limited  to  recording  briefly  the  most 
important  facts  which  mark  the  various  stages 
of  the  early  progress  of  the  craft  in  England  ; 
the  narration  will  occasionally  be  supplemented 
with  such  personal  observations  as  have  been 
suggested  to  us  by  the  numerous  specimens 
that  have  passed  through  our  hands,  or  by  the 
original  documents  given  in  extenso  by  the 
authors  who  have  treated  the  subjects,  and  to 
whom  we  shall  always  refer  the  reader  who  wants 
to  know  more  than  he  will  find  in  our  summary 
account.  We  shall  also  hazard,  at  times,  some 
probable  supposition,  or  simply  point  out  a  new 
ground  for  controversy,  whenever  puzzling  ex- 
amples and   documents  come    to   raise   a   doubtful 


PREFACE.  Vll 

point  or  present  fresh  problems  for  solution, 
leaving  the  question  to  be  answered  by  more 
learned    and    accurate   investigators. 

The  collection  of  Enoch  Wood,  of  Burslem,  was 
the  first  one,  we  believe,  formed  with  the  view  of 
showing  the  progress  of  potting  in  Staffordshire 
from  the  seventeenth  century,  and  it  was  dispersed 
after  his  death.  However,  one  can  form  an  idea 
of  what  it  was  from  pieces  scattered  here  and 
there  in  museums.  Such  a  collection  ought  never 
to  have  left  the  Potteries.  It  was  divided  into 
four  parts,  which  were  sold  for  one  hundred 
pounds  each.  One  went  to  the  South  Kensing- 
ton Museum  ;  the  others  were  bought  by  the 
Jermyn  Street  Museum,  the  Mechanics'  Institution 
at  Hanley,  and  Mr.  Herbert  Minton,  who  pre- 
sented his  share  to  Stoke  Museum.  We  must 
also  mention  that  in  his  lifetime  Enoch  Wood 
sent  one  hundred  and  twenty  pieces  to  the 
King   of  Saxony. 

Brought  together  as  they  were,  his  specimens 
forcibly  exemplified  what  genuine  old  English  art 
had  been  in  its  pristine  days,  and  one  could  have 
derived  from  them  the  knowledge  that  can 
hardly  be  gathered  now  from  the  stray  and  rare 
bits  which  have  come  down  to  us,  unclassed  and 
disregarded.  The  formation  of  a  collection  similar 
to  what  Enoch  Wood's  must  have  been,  became 
the  goal  that  we  strove  to  reach,  as  soon  as, 
under   much   altered  circumstances,  we  began  our 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

researches  for  early  and  typical  examples  of  Eng- 
lish ware.  The  description  of  the  specimens 
which  should  be  selected  to  constitute  an  ideal 
collection  of  the  sort,  will  form  the  subject 
of  the  following  pages.  It  is  to  be  lamented 
that  the  early  pieces,  showing  the  skill  of 
the  first  potters,  mostly  made  for  daily  use, 
have  shared  the  doom  of  all  common  things, 
and  now  broken  and  destroyed,  have  disappeared 
almost  completely.  It  seems  as  though  the 
English  people,  whose  genius  revels  in  an  ever- 
renewed  manifestation  of  power,  whilst  hastening 
to  produce  a  new  manufacture,  had  done  their 
best  to  make  away  with  all  that  recalled  a 
beginning  of  which  their  present  glory  made 
them    somewhat   ashamed. 

And  yet  is  there  anything  more  interesting  for 
an  inquisitive  mind  than  to  trace  back  the  pro- 
gress of  an  art  to  its  remotest  sources  ;  to  follow 
the  wandering  attempts  of  its  infancy,  timid  and 
unexperimented,  but  charming  for  us,  because 
we  are  always  charmed  by  all  that  is  young  ? 
Nothing  is  to  be  found  there  but  what  is  original 
and  sincere,  nothing  that  looks  borrowed  from 
conventional   rules,    misunderstood   and   ill-applied. 

The  Greek  artist,  who  by  a  geometrical  tracery 
originated  the  symbolical  figure  of  a  wave,  and 
placed  it  at  the  bottom  of  a  wall  or  at  the  foot 
of  a  vase,  was  a  creator  and  a  poet ;  he  who 
came    next,  and    understanding  the  purport  of  the 


PREFACE.  IX 

work  of  his  predecessor,  definitely  settled  the  best 
use  to  which  it  could  be  put,  may  be  termed  a 
skilful  jand  learned  man  ;  but  what  can  we  say  of 
the  reckless  imitator,  who,  coming  at  a  later 
period,  employs  indiscriminately  the  most  com- 
monplace designs  of  the  past,  distributing  at 
random  figures  and  ornaments,  all  dead  letters 
to  him,  upon  any  surface,  with  the  sole  view 
of  making  it  gorgeous,  and  (to  take  one  ex- 
ample out  of  a  thousand)  will  uncoil  the  symbolic 
wave  of  the  Greek  on  the  border  of  a  fire-stove? 
Nothing  of  the  kind  is  to  be  found  on  the  works 
of  the  potters  we  propose  to  study  ;  and  we  must 
confess  it  is  chiefly  from  abhorrence  of  these  out- 
of-place  decorations,  often  the  fruit  of  a  too  hasty 
revival,  that  we  feel  attracted  towards  primitive 
works,  always  sound,  fresh,  and  rational.  Satu- 
rated with  sophisticated  embellishments,  pursued 
everywhere  by  ornaments  spread  on  every 
available  space,  whether  wanted  or  not,  we  like 
to  rest  our  eyes  and  our  mind  in  looking 
sympathetically  upon  the  simple  attempts  of  the 
earliest  ceramic   artists. 

When  we  began  hunting  and  collecting  old 
English  Pottery  we  felt  like  a  traveller  traversing 
a  country  as  yet  unexplored,  who  meets  with 
a  fresh  discovery  at  every  step ;  and  the  reader 
will  understand  the  deep  interest  we  took  in 
studying  those  specimens  of  an  art  completely 
unknown  to   us.       The   huge    Slip-decorated   dish, 


X         -  PREFACE.        " 

ornamented  with  the  stately  figures  of  King  and 
Queen,  or  rather  the  abstract  conception  of  what 
royalty  might  be.  Exceptional  and  proud  produc- 
tion of  one  of  the  common  potters  of  Staffordshire, 
trying  his  hand  at  art  for  the  first  time,  which, 
highly  prized  in  its  day,  never  left  the  dresser 
it  was  made  to  adorn  but  on  the  grand  festive 
days,  when  it  was  used  to  bake  the  fat  goose. 
The  cradle  of  coarse  clay,  made  on  the  occasion 
of  the  great-grandmother's  christening  day,  and 
brought  on  the  table  for  the  first  time  two 
hundred  years  before,  filled  with  filberts  and 
walnuts.  The  traditional  tyg,  embellished  with 
an  unlimited  number  of  handles,  and  bearing  in 
large  letters  the  name  of  its  possessor.  The 
capacious  posset-pot,  wherein  the  compound  liquor 
was  brewed  at  Christmastide  only.  The  lucky 
shoe,  a  wedding  present,  the  hob  nails  of  which, 
made  of  white  slip  dots,  formed  under  the  sole 
the  name  of  the  owner.  The  four-handled  candle- 
stick, an  ornamental  article,  preserved  on  the 
mantel-shelf,  together  with  the  most  curious 
belongings  of  the  family,  and  not  the  less 
admired  for  never  being  used.  The  white  and 
delicate  Salt-glaze  ware,  stamped  or  embossed 
all  over  with  characteristic  ornaments.  The 
highly-glazed  and  richly-coloured  tortoiseshell 
pieces.  The  Agate-ware,  formed  of  variegated 
bodies,  harmoniously  blended.  The  cream-colour, 
so      quickly      attaining      a      perfection     that     has 


PREFACE.  XI 

never  been  surpassed.  All  these,  and  a  host  of 
other  varieties,  were  equally  exciting  our  admira- 
tion, for  in  all  of  them  we  could  unmistakably 
trace  that  freshness  of  feeling  which  is  so  often 
wanting  in  the  productions  of  a  more  refined 
epoch. 

In  this  way  we  shall  endeavour  to  pursue  our 
principal  object,  which  is  to  relate,  as  far  as  it  is 
in  our  power,  the  efforts  and  trials  of  the  first 
plodders  in  the  field,  the  unknown  ones,  who  can 
have  no  special  history  of  their  own,  but  who, 
working  as  a  group,  made  the  ground  ready  for 
the  splendid  achievements  of  the  great  potters 
of  the   latter   part   of  the   eighteenth   century. 

The  discoverers  of  the  early  hour  are  doomed 
to  be  absorbed  into  the  commanding  individuality 
of  the  man  who,  at  the  appointed  time,  arises 
to  condense  all  their  ideas.  Setting  into  shape 
all  that  was  still  rudimentary  and  unconnected, 
he  appropriates  to  a  definite  use  all  the  various 
processes  which,  up  to  his  time,  had  been  little 
more  than  so  many  experiments,  and  settles  the 
practical  rules  with  which  his  name  will  be  for 
ever  associated.  This  is  how  it  happens  that  the 
fame  of  the  pioneers  of  the  art  is  eclipsed  ;  their 
work  remains  anonymous,  and  no  one  cares  any 
more  for  the  names  of  the  forgotten  ones,  whose 
combined  exertions  had  such  an  important  share 
in  bringing  their  craft  nearer  to  perfection.  Yet 
history,   which    repeats  itself,   often   shows  that  as 


XU  PREFACE.        * 

long  as  these  early  and  active  labourers  are 
tolling,  each  of  them  brings  a  fresh  stone  to  the 
edifice;  but  as  soon  as  the  great  man,  the  prac- 
tical genius,  makes  his  appearance,  he  seems  to 
erect  in  the  path  an  insurmountable  barrier ;  he 
marks  the  limit,  and  no  one  will  ever  go  further. 
Like  the  fruit  which  completes  the  growth  of 
some  of  the  Eastern  plants,  he  is  the  sure  sign 
of  the  coming  end  ;  after  the  fruit  has  ripened, 
the  plant  slowly  withers  and  dies.  Retracing  the 
steps  of  the  deviated  tradition,  to  start  again 
from  the  source  will  always  have  a  charm  for 
the  artist,  if,  by  assiduously  studying  the  works 
of  the  unknown  and  the  forgotten  precursors,  he 
may  gather  something  for  which  credit  may, 
however   tardily,    be   given    where   it   is   due. 

This  is  why  we  do  not  intend  setting  before 
our  readers  any  specimens  of  a  later  date  than 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
several  types  it  is  our  purpose  to  describe  are 
not  sufficiently  numerous  or  varied  in  their 
manufacture  to  require  a  scientific  classification  ; 
neither  is  a  chronological  arrangement  called  for, 
seeing  that  they  are  all  comprised  within  the 
short  period  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 
In  the  same  way  as  they  are  grouped  on  the 
shelves  of  our  own  collection,  we  ask  permission 
to  present  them  hereafter.  We  shall  classify  them 
under  the  following  headings : — 

Early  Pottery — A  short  retrospective    account 


PREFACE.  XIU 

of  the  ware  which  was  produced  in  England 
before   the   seventeenth   century. 

The  Stone-ware — Which  in  the  South  of 
England  was  one  of  the  first  attempts  at  im- 
provement made  by  the  potters,  in  order  to 
supply  the  goods  hitherto  imported  from  Ger- 
many. This  object  being  at  last  successfully 
achieved   by   D wight. 

Slip- Decorated  Ware — Or  pieces  made  of  the 
rough  marl  from  the  coal  measures,  ornamented 
with  diluted  clay,  poured  in  cursive  tracery  on 
the   surface,    and   glazed    with    "galena." 

The  Delft-ware — Made  in  imitation  of  the 
Dutch  importations ;  too  good  an  imitation  per- 
haps, as  it  can  hardly  be  distinguished  from 
the  foreign  productions,  but  which,  nevertheless, 
cannot  be  overlooked,  because  of  its  having  been 
extensively  manufactured  in  many  parts  of  Eng- 
land. 

The  Sigillated  or  Stamped  Ware — A  process 
probably  derived  from  the  German  Stone-ware, 
but  which  had  become  thoroughly  English  when 
the  successors  of  the  Elers  began  to  employ  clays 
of  different  colours,  glazing  them  with  "lead  ore." 

The  Salt-glaze — White  and  delicately-made 
Stone-ware,  the  most  English  of  all  in  its 
characteristics,  decorated  with  sharp  and  quaint 
embossments,  or  (but  only  at  a  later  period) 
with   enamels,    and  even    with   printing. 

The     Tortgiseshell — Rich     and     harmonious, 


XIV  PREFACE. 

with  underglaze  colours,  similar  in  effect  to  the 
works  of  Palissy,  and  of  the  early  potters  of 
the  Continent,  but  differing  much  from  them  by 
the  style  of  the  shapes  and  decorations  ;  and, 
lastly  : 

The  Cream-colour — Beginning  with  the  dis- 
covery of  the  use  of  flint  by  Astbtiry ;  the  first 
step  towards  the  white  earthenware,  which, 
brought  by  Josiah  Wedgwood  to  the  highest 
degree  of  perfection,  was  to  supersede  all  others. 

We  shall  close  our  account  at  the  coming  of 
the  prince  of  English  potters,  to  whose  memory 
lasting  monuments  are  not  wanting — exhaustive 
books  and  complete  collections.  Moreover,  his 
admirable  works  are  so  intimately  linked  to  the 
modest  productions  of  his  predecessors,  that  to 
write  about  ^  them  is  in  a  manner  to  make  an 
introduction  to  the  study  of  his  achievements, 
and    indirectly    to    pay    homage    to    his    genius. 

From  a  visit  to  the  collection  which  Mr.  H. 
Willett  has  so  generously  lent  to  the  town  of 
Brighton,  a  great  amount  of  information  can  be 
derived  ;  nowhere  are  to  be  seen  so  many  strik- 
ing and  valuable  testimonies  to  the  art  of  our 
early  potters.  A  few  collectors  of  taste  have 
not  thought  it  unworthy  of  their  pursuit  to 
secure  fine  representative  examples  of  the  old 
English  earthenware,  and  it  is  a  piece  of  real 
good  fortune  to  be  permitted  to  admire  the 
choice     selections     possessed     by     Dr.     Diamond, 


PREFACE.  XV 

Professor  Church,  Mr.  Soden  Smith,  and  many 
others  ;  and  above  all,  the  admirable  collection 
formed  by  Lady  Charlotte  Schreiber,  by  her 
lately  presented  to  the  Museum  of  South  Ken- 
sington. There  is  also  no  lack  of  interesting 
pieces  to  be  seen  in  the  public  museums,  though 
perhaps  justice  has  not  altogether  been  done 
there  to  the  productions  of  the  British  potter ; 
his  little  show,  selected  without  much  discrimina- 
tion, and  carelessly  arranged,  stands  a  poor  chance 
of  looking  creditable  amid  the  gorgeous  display 
of  foreign  faience  by  which  it  is  surrounded.  We 
must,  however,  make  an  exception  in  favour  of 
Jermyn  Street  Museum,  which,  with  its  admirable 
catalogue,  forms  of  itself  a  complete  study. 

Before  concluding  these  introductory  remarks, 
it  is  our  duty  to  cordially  thank  those  to  whom  we 
are  indebted  for  assistance  in  the  completion  of 
this  book.  We  stand  under  so  many  obligations, 
and  our  debt  of  gratitude  is  so  heavy,  that  we  are 
at  a  loss  to  know  whom  to  thank  most ;  we  had 
better  confess  at  once  that  if  there  is  any  interest 
in  what  will  be  found  hereafter,  the  credit  is  due 
to  others.  The  greater  part  of  our  information 
we  have  borrowed  from  the  works  of  such  pains- 
taking explorers  in  the  way  of  ceramic  history 
as  Marryat,  Chaffers,  Miss  Meteyard,  Mr.  Jewitt, 
and  many  others.  We  need  not  mention  their 
books,  for  they  are  so  well  known.  For  the 
formation   of    our    collection,    we   are   indebted    to 


XVI      •  PREFACE.       * 

the  generosity  and  unremitting  exertions  of  so 
many  kind  friends,  that  we  cannot  attempt  to 
thank  them  separately  for  the  possession  of  the 
fine  specimens  which,  through  their  kindness, 
have   passed   into   our   hands. 

Last,  but  not  least,  we  have  to  acknowledge 
thankfully  the  valued  assistance  received  from 
our  old  friend,  Basil  Holmes,  the  painter,  and 
from  Mr.  J.  L.  Cherry,  of  Stafford,  who  both 
kindly  undertook  the  revision  of  these  pages  ; 
and  although  we  have  still  to  beg  that  allowances 
may  be  made  for  the  shortcomings  of  a  foreigner, 
we  feel  less  diffident  in  presenting  our  incomplete 
sketch  to  the  reader  after  it  has  so  much  bene- 
fited by  their  careful  emendations. 

Stoke-on-Trent. 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter     I. 

EARLY     POTTERY. 

Pre-Historic  Urns. —  Roman  Occupation. — 
Norman  Period. — Mediaeval  Ware. — 
Conventual  Pottery. — Common  Ware  of 
the  Middle  Ages. — German  and  Dutch 
Ware  Imported. — Names  of  the  Diffe- 
rent Vessels,  and  their  use  in  the 
Fourteenth  Century. — Tudor  and  Eliza- 
bethan  Ware i 

Chapter     II. 
STONE-WARE. 

Stone-ware  and  its  Glaze. — Importation  from 
Germany. — Mounting  in  Metal. — Stone- 
ware made  in  England. — Early  Patents. 
— John  Dwight  and  his  Discoveries. — 
Dwight's  Porcelain.  —  The  Fulham 
"  Trouvaille."  —  Beer     Bottles.  —  Francis 


XVlir  CONTENTS.   * 

Place's       China. — Nottingham      Ware.-^ 
Bear  Jugs       ------     23 

Chapter     III. 

SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

The  Slip  Process. — Its  Antiquity. — Its  In- 
troduction into  England.  —  Localities 
where  it  was  Practised. — The  Stafford- 
shire Potters.  —  A  Potwork  in  the 
Moorlands.  —  Dr.  Plot's  Account.  — 
Reckoning. — Varieties  of  Shapes. — Names 
of  some  Slip  Potters. — The  Lettering 
and  other  sorts  of  Decorations. — A 
New  Style  of  Slip  Painting. — Richness 
of  Colour. — Metal  Mounts. — Inscriptions. 
— Modern  Slip  Ware       -         -         -         -     49 

Chapter     IV. 
ENGLISH     DELFT. 

Dutch  Ware,  its  Body  and  Glaze. — Delft 
made  in  England  :  Lambeth — Liverpool 
— Bristol — The  Staffordshire  Potteries. — 
English  Delft  Dishes.  —  Unsuccessful 
Attempts  to  Manufacture  Delft  in  the 
Potteries. — Inscriptions.  -  English  Delft 
only  made  as  an  Imitation  of  Foreign 
Ware 95 


CONTENTS.  XIX 

Chapter    V. 

THE      BROTHERS      ELERS     AND     THE 

STAMPED    WARE. 

The  Brothers  Elers  come  from  Holland. — 
Some  Accounts  of  their  Family. — John 
Philip  probably  the  potter  of  the  two. 
— Bradwell  Wood  and  Dimsdale. — The 
Red  Ware. — Metal  dies  used  to  stamp 
the  ornaments.  —  Black  Ware.  —  The 
Imitations, — Tests  for  Identification. — 
The  Word  "  Porcelain  "  applied  in  that 
time  to  Opaque  Ware. — Introduction  of 
Salt-glazing. — Deep  secrecy  preserved  in 
the  Manufactory. — Astbury  and  Twyford 
discover  the  Secrets. — The  Elers  Leave 
Staffordshire. — John  Philip  joins  the 
Chelsea  Glass  Works, —  He  settles  in 
Dublin. — The  Works  of  Astbury  and 
other   imitators. — Portobello   Ware.  -  119 

Chapter     VI. 

SALT-GLAZE. 

Origin  of  the  White  Stone-ware  glazed  with 
Salt. — Salt-glaze  ovens  in  Burslem. — 
The  Glaze  and  its  high  degree  of  fir- 
ing. —  Composition      of     the     Body.  — 


XX    '•  CONTENTS.  " 

Stamped  Ornaments  and  Brass  Moulds. 
Mould-cutting, — Casting. — Introduction  of 
Plaster  Moulds.  —  Extension  of  the 
Pottery  Trade  in  Staffordshire.  -Astbury 
and  other  leading  Potters  of  the  Period. 
— Variety  of  Shapes  and  their  Origi- 
nality. —  Different  Processes  connected 
with  Salt-glaze  Ware.  —  ''Scratched 
Blue." — Competition  with  the  German 
Ware. —  Enamelled  Salt-glaze — Gilding. 
— Reproduction  of  China  Pieces  made 
in  Salt-glaze  Ware. — Tiles. — Perforated 
Pieces. — Localities  where  Salt-glaze  was 
Manufactured  -         -         -         -         -i45 


Chapter    VII. 

EARTHENWARE:     CREAM -CO  LOUR, 
AGATE-WARE,  TORTOISESHELL,  Etc. 

Antiquity  of  Earthenware. —  Its  revival  by 
English  Potters.  —  Improvements  in 
Earthenware  following  on  researches  for 
a  white  body. — Increase  of  the  trade 
of  the  Potteries  towards  the  beginning 
of  the  Eighteenth  Century.—  Introduc- 
tion of  Flint  and  Cream-colour  Ware. 
— Tortoiseshell  and  Colours  under  Glaze. 


CONTENTS.  XXI 

— Patents. — Agate-ware. — Thomas  Ast- 
bury — Ralph  Shaw.— John  Mitchell. — 
Thomas  and  John  Wedgwood. — Thomas 
Whieldon. — Shapes  and  Models. — Imita- 
tions and  Piracies. — Introduction  into 
the  Potteries  of  Blue  Painting  on 
Earthenware.  —  Enamelling.  —  Foreign 
China-Painters  working  in  England. — 
Plaster  Moulds  and  their  effect. — Last 
Improvements   in   Cream-colour.       -         -   ^97 


Appendix. 

FOREIGN     IMITATIONS     OF     ENGLISH 
EARTHENWARE. 

Opinion  entertained  in  France  on  English 
Flint  Ware  towards  the  end  of  the 
last  Century. — Emigration  of  English 
Operatives. — "  Terre  d'Angleterre"  manu- 
factured at  Paris. — Edme. — Saladin,  of 
St.  Omer. — Peterinck,  of  Tournay. — The 
Brothers  Boch,  of  Septfontaine  and 
Longwy. — Charles  Bayard,  of  Bellevue. 
— Shaw,  at  Montereau. —  Desseaux  de 
Romilly  and  Asselineau  Grammont,  of 
Orleans. — The  Moulins,  of  Apt. — Charles 
and    J.     Leigh,    at    Douai. — Lanfrey,    at 


XXir  CONTENTS.     ^ 

Niedervllller. — Potter,  Prince  of  Wales 
Works,  at  Paris. — Gllivier  and  Despres, 
at  Paris.  — Royal  Manufactories  of  Sevres 
and  Buen-Retiro. — De  Bettignies,  of  St. 
Amand.  —  Pierre  Senly,  of  Nevers ; 
Vavasseur,  of  Rouen. — Francis  Warbur- 
ton,  at  La  Charite  sur  Loire. — Arend 
de  Haak,  of  Delft  -         -         -        -        -  251 


INDEX     TO     ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FIG.  PAGB 

1.  Early  British  Urn 5 

2.  Do.                     6 

3.  Early  British  Drinking  Cup    -        -        -       -  7 

4.  Early  British  Vessel 8 

5.  Do-                     9 

6.  Green  Glaze  Jug 18 

6.  {bis.)  Stone-ware  Figure  by  John  Dwight       -  38 

7.  Meleager,  by  Dwight 39 

8.  Dwight  Stone- ware    - 40 

9.  Nottingham  Stone-ware 44 

10.  Do.              -  45 

11.  Toft  Dish 51 

12.  Pouring  out  the  Slip 52 

13-    Tyg 53 

14.  Wrotham  Ware 56 

15.  Early  Tickenhall  Ware 57 

16.  Slip  Decorated  Candlestick     -        .        -        -  65 

17.  Various  Shapes  of  Tygs 66 

18.  Tyg 67 

19.  Owl  Jug,  Marbled  Ware 71 

20.  Posset  Pot 76 

21.  Slip  Decorated  Cradle 77 

22.  Sgrafiato  Jug -   -  83 


XXIV-  INDEX    TO    ILLUSTRATIONS. 

FIG.  PAGE 

23.  Slip  Decorated  Jug    -        -        -        -        -        -  84 

24.  English  Delft  Dish  -        - .      -        -        -        -  97 

25.  Sack  Bottle 102 

26.  Delft  Puzzle  Jug 107 

27.  Elers  Ware 127 

28.  Do.                128 

29.  Brass  Die            129 

30.  Black  Ware 129 

31.  Elers  Style 131 

31.  {bis.)  AsTBURY  Cream  Jug  and  Sweetmeat  Tray 

OF  Stamped  Ware 140 

32.  Portobello  Ware 142 

33.  Salt-glaze  with  Elers  Ornaments  -        -        -  154 

34.  Salt-glaze  Tray  Stamped  in  a  Brass  Mould  -  157 

35.  Salt-glaze  Shell  Tea  Pot         _        -        .        .  159 

36.  Early  Salt-glaze  Tea  Poy         .        -        -        -  162 

37.  Salt-glaze  Tea  Pot    -        -        -        -        -        -  163 

38.  Ralph  Shaw  Ware 165 

39.  Camel  Tea  Pot 169 

40.  Squirrel  Tea  Pot 170 

41.  Salt-glaze  Cup    - 174 

42.  Early  Salt-glaze  Sauce  Boat  -        -        -        -  175 

43.  Bear  Jug 179 

44.  Scratched  Blue  Ware 180 

45.  Salt-glaze  Jug.     Imitation  of  German  Ware-  183 

46.  Enamelled  Salt-glaze        -        -        -        -        -  185 

47.  Do.            188 

48.  Tortoiseshell  Coffee  Pot        -        -        -        -  210 

49.  Agate  Ware 213 

50.  Tortoiseshell  Leaf    -        -        -        -        -        -  232 

51.  Pine  Apple  Jug 233 

52.  Cauliflower  Tea  Pot        -        -        -        -        -  234 

53.  Tortoiseshell  Cup 237 

54.  Cream-colour  Two-handled  Cup      -        -        -  243 

55.  Toby  Jug 245 


CHAPTER     I. 


EARLY     BRITISH     POTTERY. 


Pre-Historic  Urns. — Roman  Occupation. — Norman  Period. 

— Medieval    Ware. — Conventual    Pottery. — Common 

Ware    of    the    Middle    Ages. — German     and 

Dutch    Ware    Imported. — Names    of    the 

Different  Vessels,   and  their  use  in 

THE  Fourteenth  Century. — Tudor 

AND     Elizabethan     Ware. 


EARLY    BRITISH     POTTERY. 


HE  opening  of  the  barrows  and  grave- 
mounds  scattered  over  the  soil  of 
Great  Britain  has  yielded  a  large  crop 
of  urns  and  vessels  of  the  pre-historic 
period,  brought  to  light  in  exactly  the  same 
condition  as  they  were  in  many  centuries  ago. 
The  same  explorations  have  also  supplied  a  few 
implements  of  stone,  bronze,  or  glass  found 
associated  with  them.  These  are  the  only 
vestiges  that  can  speak  to  us  oi  the  industry 
of  the  first  tribes  which  inhabited  the  British 
Isles  ;  they  confirm  the  notion  that  the  Ceramic 
is  as  ancient  as  any  art  practised  by  man,  but 
they  help  very  little  to  unravel  the  mystery  of 
the  epoch  to  which   they  belong. 

While    man    is    pursuing    his    onward    progress 
through  the  periods  which  have  been  termed  the 


4  "  EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY. 

age  of  Stone,  the  age  of  bronze,  and  the  age  of 
iron,  improving  all  the  while  his  primitive  handi- 
crafts, pottery  alone  seems  to  remain  stationary, 
and  alters  little  from  what  it  was  in  the  days 
when  men  first  imagined  how  to  fashion  with  their 
hands  a  lump  of  moist  clay  into  a  hollow  recep- 
tacle. In  the  Saxon  barrows,  amongst  weapons 
cleverly  wrought,  elegant  phials  of  glass,  and  deli- 
cately chased  ornaments  of  gold  and  silver,  which, 
by  the  skill  that  they  display,  do  not  speak  of  a 
very  remote  antiquity,  are  found  clumsy  urns  and 
cups  of  unbaked  clay,  which  in  no  way  differ  from 
those  that  we  may  have  reason  to  consider  as 
being  of  some  centuries  earlier  in  date.  They 
bear  no  characters  or  inscriptions  of  any  sort  to 
assist  the  speculations  of  the  archaeologist,  while 
the  artist  finds  comparatively  little  of  interest  in 
their  decoration.  They  have  up  to  this  time 
been  classed  under  the  convenient  heading  of 
*'  Pre-historic  Pottery."  Our  wildest  speculation 
may  be  far  from  realising  the  age  of  the  oldest 
specimen  ;  on  the  other  hand,  we  know  for  certain 
that  the  tradition  was  kept  up  long  after  the  Roman 
conquest.  One  was  discovered  on  the  banks  of 
the  Alan,  in  1818,  and  was  considered  as  having 
covered  the  ashes  of  Bronwen  the  fair,  the  daughter 
of  Llyr  Llediaith,  the  aunt  of  Caractacus,  a.d.  50. 
But  Dr.  Birch,  in  recording  this  attribution,  says 
that  it  rests  only  on  probability.  The  clay  with 
which   they   were    formed,    sometimes    coarse   and 


EARLY     BRITISH     POTTERY.  5 

mixed  with  pebbles,  but  in  other  instances  more 
finely  prepared,  has  been  taken  as  affording  a 
possible  clue  to  their  respective  ages.  The  shape, 
simple  and  rough,  such  as  the  hand  of  the  maker 
can  easily  produce  without  the  aid  of  any  instru- 
ment, is  incised  or  indented  with  diagonal  lines, 
zig-zags,  herring-bones,  and  punctures,  or  impressed 
horizontally  by  the  application  to  the  wet  clay  of 


Fig.  I.    Early  British  Urn— Liverpool  Museum. 

twisted  thongs  or  coarse  ropes  ;  but  whether  termed 
cinerary  urns,  incense  cups,  or  drinking  vessels, 
they  appear  so  similar  in  style  that,  owing 
probably  to  our  imperfect  education,  it  becomes 
a  matter  of  great  difficulty  to  point  out  any 
essential  difference  between  the  specimens  dis- 
covered in  the  United  Kingdom,  France,  or 
Germany.     In  some  instances,  an  often  reproduced 


O  "  EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY. 

form,  or  a  certain  disposition  of  incised  lines 
adhered  to  in  the  simple  patterns  decorating  the 
pottery  found  in  the  same  locality,  may  draw  us 
into  the  belief  that  these  peculiarities  constitute  a 
style  proper  to  the  tribe  which  inhabited  the  soil  ; 
but  if  we  lose  traces  of  the  same  patterns  upon 
the  works  of  the  neighbouring  clan,  it  is  only 
to  find  them  again  obviously  reproduced  on  the 
discoveries  made  at  a  greater  distance. 


Fig.  2.    Early  British  Urn— Liverpool  Museum. 

So  great  a  similarity  exists  between  the  fictile 
works  of  all  primitive  arts,  whatever  country  they 
may  come  from,  that  the  early  Celtic  productions 
recall,  often  very  forcibly,  the  uncouth  vessels 
kneaded  and  shaped  by  the  women  in  the  least 
civilised  tribes  of  the  new  world.  If  a  difference 
is  to  be  noticed,  it  is  not  altogether  to  the  credit 
of  the  early    Britons'    imagination.      Most   of  the 


EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY.  7 

primitive  races  have  seldom  confined  themselves 
to  the  mere  geometrical  designs  contrived  to 
embellish  their  first  trials,  but  have  generally 
attempted  a  rude  reproduction  of  figures,  animals, 
or  natural  objects  ;  the  barrows,  on  the  contrary, 
contain  nothing  but  the  plainest  shapes,  hardly 
varied  in  character.  During  an  indefinite  suc- 
cession of  centuries  the  workmanship  remains 
unchanged ;  even  the  instance  of  a  rough  ring  on 


Pia  3.    Early  British  Drinking  Cup— Liverpool  Museum. 


the  side  of  an  urn  to  serve  the  purpose  of  a 
handle,  is  considered  as  a  remarkable  occurrence. 
Sometimes  made  of  well-beaten  clay,  they  are 
only  sun-dried  ;  in  other  cases  they  are  partially 
fired.  Most  of  them  were  put  on  the  funeral 
pile  before  being  interred  with  the  remains  ; 
by   this   act   alone   they  were  calcined  ;    often  the 


8         -  EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY. 

very  soil  where  the  cremation  took  place  has  been 
burnt  to  the  consistency  of  brick.  This  being 
observed,  must  have  led  to  the  practice  of  firing 
some  of  the  domestic  vessels  ;  but  judging  from 
the  fire-cracks,  and  the  inequality  of  the  burning 
to  be  noticed  upon  almost  every  example,  it  is 
not  probable  that  any  kilns  or  ovens  were  ever 
used. 

In  Great  Britain,  votive  vases  are  found  in 
quantity,  associated  in  the  tumuli  with  human 
remains,  whether  cremation  had  or  had  not  been 
resorted  to.  Their  most  usual  shape  is  that  of 
an  urn  with  expanded  mouth,  having  a  thick  band 

on  the  top,  not  turned  on 
the  wheel,  but  rounded 
by  hand,  and  the  surface 
ornamented  with  incised 
lines  and  punctures.  The 
work  does  not  exhibit 
traces   of  any  tool    but   a 

Pig.  4.    Early  British  Vessel.  111  1 

sharpened  bone  or  a  rough 
iron  point.  From  their  supposed  uses  they  have 
been  arranged,  according  to  their  sizes  and  shapes, 
into  four  classes,  viz.  : — Cinerary  urns,  drinking 
cups,  food  vessels,  and  incense  cups.  The  bones 
and  ashes  found  in  the  first-named  urns,  or  rather 
under  them,  since  they  are  generally  upturned  over 
the  remains,  leave  no  doubt  as  to  their  employ- 
ment ;  the  three  other  classes  may,  perhaps,  be 
said  to  have  been  named  somewhat  on  speculation. 


EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY.  9 

At  Trentham,  at  Stone,  in  Derbyshire,  and  all 
round  the  district  now  called  **  The  Potteries," 
urns  and  vases  of  this  class  have  been  frequently- 
found,  and  the  modern  potter  can  boast  of  being 
able  to  trace  his  ancestors  very  far  back  into  past 
ages.  Important  collections  have  been  formed  of 
the  ware  of  the  early  Britons,  such  as  those  of  the 
late  Mr.  Bateman,  Mr.  Warne,  and  others.  The 
British  Museum,  and  the  Mayer  Museum  at 
Liverpool,  are  very  rich  in  curious  specimens ; 
their  catalogues,  and  the  works  of  Dr.  Birch,  Mr. 
L.  Jewitt,  Mr.  J.  B.  Waring,  and  others,  con- 
tain all  the  knowledge  so  far  acquired  on  the 
subject. 

Before  the  Roman  occupation,  as  we  learn  from 
Strabo,  the  Phoenicians  carried  on  an  extensive 
trade  in  earthenware  with  the  Cassiterides  ;  so  far 
no  evidence  has  been  adduced  of  the  fact,  which, 
if  it  be  true,  would  show  that  the  inhabitants  of 
Great  Britain  were  not  satisfied  with  the  products 
of  their  native  industry. 

From  the  first  century  to  the  fourth  of  our  era, 
the  Romans  imported  into  the  conquered  country 
the  most  perfect  processes  and 
means  used  in  the  Empire ; 
innumerable  fragments  of  red 
lustrous,  black,  or  light  coloured 
ware,  either  plain  or  decorated, 
are  unearthed  from  every  place 
where  they  settled,  yet  they  do       eaklv  b^rit.sh  vessel. 


to         "  EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY. 

not  seem  to  have  imparted  any  of  their  skill  to 
the  aboriginal  people. 

It  is  only  fair  to  observe  here,  that  the  red 
lustrous  pottery  so  improperly  named  Samian  ware, 
was  never  manufactured  in  Great  Britain,  but  im- 
ported from  Gaul,  where  the  Romans  were 
making  it  as  well  as  in  Italy.  Most  of  the  other 
kinds  of  pottery  were  certainly  produced  in  the 
country,  as  has  been  ascertained  by  the  discovery 
of  several  ovens  and  kilns.  Those  wares  might 
have  been  imitated,  their  manufacture  continued 
and  improved  by  the  natives  ;  but,  unlike  the 
Gallo-Roman,  who,  by  the  side  of  his  conqueror, 
produced  an  original  style  of  pottery  easily  dis- 
tinguishable, as  is  attested  by  the  large  collection 
preserved  in  the  Museum  of  St.  Germain,  the 
Briton  did  not  try  to  emulate  the  foreign  master, 
and  to  add  something  of  his  own  to  an  industry 
which  was  not  calculated  to  answer  any  of  his 
simple  wants,  so  we  can  hardly  trace  any  real 
British  element  in  the  Anglo-Roman  ware,  with 
perhaps  an  exception  in  the  case  of  the  Upchurch 
pottery,  which  appears  to  show  some  original 
characteristics,  but  there  is  nothing  to  tell  whether 
that  is  due  to  the  particular  taste  of  the  first  native 
potter  who  worked  there,  or  to  any  external  in- 
fluence. 

To  follow  the  transformation  of  this  imported 
art,  which,  after  having  had  for  a  long  time  a 
lingering  and  declining  existence,  at  length  revived 


EARLY    BRITISH     POTTERY.  II 

and  developed  itself  into  genuine  English  pottery, 
would  be  too  serious  an  undertaking  to  attempt 
here  ;  but  it  may  one  day  be  made  evident  that 
one  or  more  of  the  little  pot-works,  standing  at 
present  in  some  out-of-the-way  spot,  has  never 
seen  the  fire  of  its  kilns  extinguished  since  it  was 
occupied  by  a  Roman  potter.  What  we  know  for 
certain  is,  that  the  making  of  a  coarse  sort  of  ware 
has  never  been  discontinued  in  England.  Vessels 
of  burnt  clay  are  of  prime  necessity  to  all  people, 
however  low  in  many  cases  the  level  of  civilisa- 
tion ;  and  their  production  is  so  closely  connected 
with  all  the  arts  of  fire,  in  the  shape  of  melting- 
pots  or  crucibles  for  smelting  metals  and  glass, 
and  the  making  of  bricks  for  ovens  and  other 
building  purposes,  that  we  do  not  require  the 
discovery  of  earthen  utensils,  buried  in  the  soil 
at  different  depths  according  to  their  age,  to 
corroborate   so    indisputable  a   fact. 

For  us  the  question  to  be  determined  is,  at  what 
period  did  the  use  of  earthen  vessels  become  more 
general  among  all  classes  ?  Their  improvement 
kept  pace  with  the  amelioration  in  manners  and 
customs,  the  plasticity  of  their  material  ren- 
dering them  peculiarly  fit  to  fulfil  the  increasing 
requirements  of  a  more  refined  society ;  but  that 
it  was  only  late  that'  such  a  use  began  to  spread 
extensively  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  of  the 
craft  remaining  stationary  for  so  long  a  time. 

Of  the  Norman  period  we  know  but  little  ;  we 


12         "  EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY. 

ask  ourselves  whether  any  discovery  of  importance 
would  repay  the  trouble  of  searching  for  a  style 
of  pottery  corresponding  to  the  Norman  style  of 
architecture,  or  to  any  of  the  artistic  handicrafts 
introduced  by  the  conquerors  amongst  the  Saxons. 
The  manuscripts  and  tapestries  of  the  epoch  give 
some  representations  of  the  pots,  basins,  and 
platters  then  used,  but  there  is  nothing  to  tell  us 
that  they  were  made  of  clay.  On  the  contrary, 
old  documents  mention  most  frequently  drinking 
cups  made  of  horn — material  so  generally  used  for 
that  purpose,  that  in  Anglo-Saxon  an  earthen 
pitcher  is  denominated  a  Tygle-Horn — glass,  the 
making  of  which  can  be  traced  to  a  remote 
antiquity  ;  metal,  or  ash  wood  ;  jugs  of  brass,  pewter, 
or  leather ;  and  wooden  trenchers.  We  must  not 
forget  that  at  the  time  of  the  Conquest  the  Nor- 
mans were,  like  all  the  warlike  people  of  the  period, 
an  essentially  nomadic  nation.  Pottery  was,  indeed, 
ill  suited  to  their  roving  propensities  and  wandering 
life  ;  besides,  they  could  hardly  have  brought  into 
England  an  art  almost  forgotten  in  their  own 
country  ;  we  know  that  such  remnant  of  Roman 
tradition  as  still  lingered  in  France  had  for 
centuries  sunk  lower  and  lower,  and  that  until  the 
revival  of  the  thirteenth  century,  both  countries 
could,  as  far  as  pottery  is  concerned,  have  found 
little  to  borrow  from  each  other. 

We    must,    rather    than     enter    upon     a     long 
controversy,  ignore  two  or  three  specimens,  some- 


EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY.  13 

times  given  as  genuine,  representative  of  the 
Norman  style,  and  which  are,  in  our  estimation, 
of  much  more  modern  date.  Our  scanty  knowledge 
of  this  period  is,  then,  confined  to  coarse  pots  and 
fragments  found  in  excavations.  It  is  upon  such 
unreliable  examples  that  it  has  been  thought 
possible  to  establish  a  parting  line  that  would 
separate  the  Norman  from  the  Saxon  pottery ;  the 
imported  one  from  the  one  that  belonged  to  the 
soil.  To  affix  a  definite  date  to  the  precarious 
result  of  diggings,  when  nothing  that  is  clearly 
proved  and  authenticated  comes  to  support  our 
speculation,  is,  to  say  the  least,  hazardous  and 
liable  to  be  easily  contradicted. 

Towards  the  middle  ages  fictile  productions 
began  to  assume  a  more  ambitious  range.  The 
floors  of  churches  and  convents  were  paved  with 
tiles  inlaid  with  clays  of  various  colours,  and 
whereon  Gothic  ornaments,  and  even  subjects  of 
figures  were  depicted.  These  tiles  present  a  great 
variety  of  processes,  being  coated  with  glazes  of 
different  colours,  embossed  and  pressed,  stamped 
and  sunk,  inlaid  or  painted  with  white  clay.  Jugs 
like  those  preserved  in  the  Scarborough  and  Salis- 
bury Museums,  and  the  one  found  at  Lewes,  are 
made  in  the  shape  of  mounted  knights  wearing  the 
costume  of  the  twelfth  century.  By  comparing 
these  with  the  knights  represented  on  the  tiles  of 
Chertsey  Abbey,  one  might  be  led  to  suppose  they 
also    had    a    monastic    origin.      Tile-making    was 


14  "^  EARLY    BRITISH     POTTERY. 

evidently  introduced  from  Italy  and  France,  where 
it  was  practised  at  a  vei'y  early  period  by  the 
monks  themselves.  Some  travelling  friars  brought 
it  over,  and  they  were  very  jealous  of  keeping 
their  professional  secrets,  applying  them  only  to 
articles  for  their  own  use,  whether  tiles  or  such 
domestic  earthenware  as  was  required  in  the 
community.  A  very  curious  record  is  found  in 
''Nichols  Decorative  Tiles:''  in  1210,  the  Abbot 
of  Beaubec,  in  Normandy,  was  sentenced  to  ''light 
penance "  for  having  allowed  a  monk  to  work  at 
his  trade  of  a  potter  for  persons  outside  the  Cis- 
tercian order.  With  the  making  of  tiles  and  other 
conventual  pottery  of  the  mediaeval  period,  we  find 
again  the  trade  in  foreign  hands,  and  the  same 
difficulty  besets  us  to  know  what  share  the  local 
potter  may  have  had  in  the  best  productions  of 
these  times. 

Far  from  entering  the  way  to  improvement 
opened  by  the  monastic  orders,  we  believe  that 
the  ware  turned  out  by  the  common  potter  for 
homely  uses  was  meanwhile  becoming  lower  and 
lower  in  quality.  It  consisted  of  crocks  of  the 
commonest  description,  made  with  especial  regard 
to  cheapness  ;  friable  and  brittle  from  being  under- 
fired  to  save  fuel,  and  left  porous  and  pervious. 
These  wares  were  partially  glazed  on  the  outside 
with  brilliantly-hued  green,  yellow,  or  brown,  to 
make  them  look  showy  on  the  market  place  ;  yet 
we   learn  from  the   ''Liber  Albus,''    that  as  early 


EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY.  15 

as  1 271  It  was  ordered  that  "all  earthenware 
should  be  well  leaded."  If  ever  the  potter 
attempted  an  out-of-the-way  piece  whereon  to 
display  some  unwonted  invention,  it  was  in  the 
same  way  that  a  country  baker  occasionally  makes 
a  wedding  cake.  The  consequence  was  that  all 
articles  made  of  clay  were  discredited,  as  being 
vulgar  and  unfit  for  any  respectable  person's  use. 
Down  to  our  own  days  we  have  kept  something 
of  that  prejudice  in  the  feeling  of  reprobation 
entertained  against  a  clay  pipe. 

Only  pots  of  one  sort  escaped  the  general  con- 
tempt ;  these  were  the  jugs  and  tankards  of 
German  Stone-ware,  which  were  often  expensively 
mounted  in  silver.  More  than  once  are  they 
mentioned  in  the  wills  of  the  wealthy  ;  but  they 
were  prized  merely  on  account  of  their  rarity,  just 
as  the  Chinese  collector,  spoken  of  by  a  traveller, 
valued  an  English  ginger-beer  bottle  which  he 
had  placed  amongst  his  most  precious  porcelain. 
So  different  were  they  from  all  that  was  made  in 
the  country  that  they  became  an  object  of  great 
curiosity.  We  should  therefore  be  cautious  before 
accepting  any  examples  described  in  the  old  deeds 
as  throwing  any  light  upon  the  history  of  potting 
in  England. 

The  names  of  the  earthen  vessels  in  use  at  the 
time  were  most  of  them  derived  from  the  French. 
They  are : — 

Cruske,  Cruskyn,  Cruche — A  jug. 


1 6        «  EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY. 

Crock — Also   a  jug,   often   mounted   in   silver 

or  pewter. 
Goddet  or  Goddart — A  mug. 
Gallipot — A  small  cup. 
Botelly  Flagon — A  bottle. 

Costeril  or  Costeret — A  flask  to  be  slung  over 
the  shoulder. 
Many  of  these,  coloured  with  mottled  glazes,  are 
evidently  of  French  manufacture,  and  were,  no 
doubt,  brought  over  by  travellers.  Others  in  the 
shape  of  a  bottle,  marbled  red  and  yellow,  were 
of  English  make. 

Jubbe  ?  — Spoken  of  by  Chaucer. 
Just — Holding  the  exact  measure. 
Squely  Ecuelle — A  shallow  basin. 
Pitchers — Jugs     are     still    called     pichets     in 
Normandy. 
Most  of  these  pieces  do  not  bear  any  decora- 
tion ;  yet  the  earliest,  generally  coated  with  green 
glaze,  are  heavily  ornamented  with  embossed  heads 
or  rude  foliage,  the  last  trace  of  Roman  tradition. 
At  Lincoln,  small  moulds  of  terra-cotta  were  found, 
together  with  fragments  of  the  fourteenth  century  ; 
rude  reliefs  were  pressed  separately  in  these  moulds 
before  being  applied  to  the  ware.     Last  year  two 
curious   basins,   ornamented   all    round  with   heads 
of  the   same   style,   were   found  at  Chester ;   they 
were    used    as    hand-warmers,    and    are    precisely 
similar  in  shape  to  others  dug  up  in  Paris.     The 
journals  of  the  Antiquarian   societies   of  England 


EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY.  \^ 

are  filled  with  accounts  of  discoveries  of  this 
sort.  We  notice  that  articles  ascribed  to  the 
middle  ages  are,  as  a  rule,  very  coarse  and 
common.  They  consist  of  jugs,  pipkins,  piggins, 
patens  or  bowls,  watering  pots,  money  boxes, 
children's  toys — all  articles  made  for  the  poor, 
for  gardening,  or  for  the  most  vulgar  uses  of 
the  household.  On  the  common  yieldings  of  the 
excavations  it  is  useless  to  linger,  any  more  than 
upon  the  butter  pots  of  Burslem  or  the  garden 
tiles  of  Newcas tie-under- Lyme,  the  latter  especially 
not  being  very  much  above  the  bricks  of  the 
builder.  Far  from  being,  as  they  have  sometimes 
been  supposed  to  be,  the  beginning  of  a  revival, 
we  think  that  they  must  be  considered  as  the  fag- 
ends  of  an  art  fallen  into  disuse.  Tygs,  dishes, 
and  pieces  covered  with  a  rich  black  glaze  are  not 
found  amongst  the  former,  being  much  later  in 
date.  These  show  no  longer  traces  of  moulding 
like  the  earliest  ware  ;  the  knobs  or  handles  are 
made  by  hand,  impressed  with  the  thumb  or 
pinched  with  two  fingers  at  the  place  where  they 
join  the  body  of  the  piece. 

If  we  now  come  to  the  Tudor  and  Elizabethan 
period,  we  do  not  find  that  the  records  of  the 
times,  which  allude  to  the  introduction  of  earthen 
utensils  amongst  those  in  ordinary  use,  throw 
much  light  upon  the  particular  share  the  English 
potter  had  in  their  making,  nor  to  what  extent 
he   was   assisting    the   development    of    his    craft. 


^^  "  EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY. 

Chaffers  {''Marks  and  Monograms,''  p.  52)  quotes 
many  interesting  documents.  From  Estienne  Per- 
lin,  Paris,  1558  :  '*  The  English  drink  beer  not  out 
of  glass,  but  from  earthen  pots,  the  cover  and 
handles  made  of  silver  for  the  rich.  The  middle 
class  mount  them  with  tin.  The  poorer  sort  use 
beer    pots    made    of    wood."      From    Harrisson, 


Fig.  6.    Green  Glaze  Jug. 

1579:  *'As  for  drink,  it  is  generally  filled  in 
pots  of  silver,  also  in  fine  Venice  glasses  of  all 
forms,  and  for  want  of  these  elsewhere  in  pots  of 
earth,  of  sundry  colours  and  moulds,  whereof  many 
are  garnished  with  silver,  or  at  the  leastwise  with 
pewter." 

But  all  the  pots  mounted  with  silver  and  pewter, 
if  we  may  judge  from  the  numerous  examples  that 
have  come  down  to  us,  were  no  doubt  of  German 


EARLY    BRITISH     POTTERY.  1 9 

or  Dutch  make.  We  do  not  know  any  instance  of 
an  indisputably  genuine  English  jug  or  tankard 
associated  with  an  Elizabethan  garnish  of  metal, 
while  there  is  a  large  number  of  foreign  ones,  the 
setting  of  which,  whether  of  pewter  or  silver,  is 
stamped  with  the  English  mark. 

More  to  the  point  are  the  following  quotations, 
also  given  by  Chaffers  : — From  the  books  of  the 
Drapers'  Company,  1552,  describing  the  election 
feast :  **  There  were  green  pots  of  ale  and  wine 
with  ashen  cups  before  them."  From  the  Losely 
MSS.  in  the  sixteenth  century  :  "  The  gentlemen 
of  the  Temple  drank  out  of  green  earthen  pots  made 
from  a  white  clay  found  at  Farnham  Park." 

In  the  first  edition  of  this  work  we  have  repro- 
duced a  puzzle-jug  of  our  own  collection,  which 
bears  the  date  1 59 1 ,  the  figures  being  thickly  raised 
in  clay.  It  is  coated  with  the  same  green  glaze 
peculiar  to  the  mediaeval  English  ware,  which  seems 
to  answer  the  description  quoted  above.  We  shall 
ascribe  to  the  same  date  a  green  pitcher  decorated 
with  horseshoes  and  buckles,  the  cognizance  of  the 
Ferrers,  the  Norman  Earls  of  Derby,  and  which, 
on  that  account,  has  been  by  some  authors  described 
as  a  specimen  of  Norman  pottery. 

We  must  mention,  but  with  a  caution,  the  two 
brackets  preserved  in  the  British  Museum.  They 
bear  amongst  other  devices  the  Tudor  rose  and 
the  monogram  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  are  richly 
glazed  with  green  and  brown.     They  are  considered 


20  "  EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY. 

of  English  make,  but  the  style  of  ornamentation 
and  the  quality  of  the  glaze  remind  one  more  of 
the  Nuremberg  stove  slabs  than  of  anything  made 
in  England  at  that  time.  One  of  them  comes  from 
Hampton  Court,  and  we  know  that  the  decorative 
tiles  of  that  palace  were  imported  from  Germany, 
therefore  we  feel  somewhat  doubtful  whether  these 
brackets  might  not  have  had  the  same  origin. 

Meanwhile,  however,  we  find  a  few  records  of 
the  importation  abroad  of  earthenware  manufac- 
tured in  England.  In  the  inventory  of  the  col- 
lection formed  by  Florimond  Robertet  at  the 
Chateau  of  Bury,  dated  1532,  we  find  the  mention 
of  some  pieces  of  *'  fine  pottery  comming  from 
Italy,  Germany,  &  Englandr  M.  H.  Schuermans 
(Gres  Flamands  Limbourgeois  &  Liegeois)  gives 
the  text  of  a  privilege  granted  to  J.  B.  Chabotteau 
of  the  county  of  Namur,  at  the  date  of  1639,  for 
the  making  of  various  sorts  of  earthen  pots,  in 
which  we  read  this — **so  far  our  country  has  been 
supplied  with  drinking  pots,  dishes,  tobacco  pipes, 
etc.,  manufactured  in  England  &  Holland"— 
unfortunately,  of  what  particular  kind  was  the 
ware  here  in  question,  has  not  yet  been  ascer- 
tained. 

Nowhere  do  we  find,  during  the  times  which 
correspond  to  the  Italian  and  French  Renaissance, 
the  name  of  any  potter  who  had  attained  to 
notoriety,  nor  does  any  nobleman  of  distinction 
appear  to  have  shown  in  England  a  special  interest 


EARLY    BRITISH    POTTERY.  21 

in  the  progress  of  the  art,  by  giving  his  patronage 
to  any  earthenware  manufactory. 

In  Italy,  Maestro  Giogrio  was  everywhere 
acknowledged  as  a  great  artist,  and  kept  at  the 
Court  of  the  Duke  Delia  Rovere  equal  rank  with 
painters  and  noblemen.  In  Germany,  Jacqueline 
de  Baviere  made  with  her  own  hands  the  first 
pieces  of  Stone-ware.  In  France,  Helene,  Countess 
of  Hangesty  herself  superintended  the  making  of 
the  wonderful  Oiron  Faience.  Later  on,  King 
Charles  IX.  and  all  his  courtiers  followed  with  the 
greatest  curiosity  the  works  of  Palissyy  and  in  1606, 
Gonzague,  Duke  of  Nevers  and  Prince  of  Mantua, 
stood  godfather  to  the  son  of  Conrade,  "  potter 
of  Nevers,"  who  is  qualified  **  Noble  homme,"  and 
his  brother  "  Noble  seigneur."  Could  we  be  sur- 
prised that  the  productions  of  the  Old  English  Potter 
were  of  so  little  importance  in  comparison  with  what 
was  done  on  the  Continent,  when  we  see  how  much 
he  lacked  encouragement  ?  But  times  were  getting 
near  when  he  would  readily  answer  the  first  earnest 
appeal  made  to  his  ingenuity  and  industry. 

Towards  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, England  seems  to  have  awakened  to  a  feeling 
of  her  inferiority,  and  we  find  the  potter  everywhere 
busy  in  trying  all  sorts  of  improvements,  as  will 
be  seen  in  subsequent  chapters.  If  the  nobility 
did  not  yet  require  his  earthen  vessels,  the  people 
in  their  millions  were  demanding  articles  appro- 
priate  to   newly-created    wants ;    the   gap   between 


22  EARLY    BRITISH     POTTERY. 

nobleman  and  commoner  was  filling  up  every  day 
in  consequence  of  the  social  changes  which  occurred 
in  that  century  ;  so  between  silver  plate  and  rough 
crusking  some  gradation  was  steadily  intervening. 
The  man  who  with  a  little  competence  had  also 
acquired  a  craving  for  better  utensils  in  his  house- 
hold, could  no  longer  put  up  with  the  coarse  and 
plain  ale  pot  of  his  forefathers  ;  when  entertaining 
his  gossip,  he  liked  to  see  on  his  table  some  curious 
mug  which  should  be  a  topic  of  conversation, 
perhaps  an  object  of  envy.  With  means  and 
leisure  came  the  desire  to  rival  or  excel  his  neigh- 
bour's luxuries.  Colours  and  shapes  began  to  be 
diversified,  puzzle  jugs  of  various  combinations 
offered  an  amusement  to  the  drinker  unacquainted 
with  the  trick,  and  the  marbled  jug  made  in  the 
shape  of  an  pwl  became  a  subject  of  admiration 
to  all.  Tygs  (like  that  in  the  Mayer  collection, 
dated  1612),  candlesticks,  and  posset  pots  were 
designed  and  potted  by  spirited  artists  in  a  masterly 
manner,  that  borrowed  nothing  from  foreign  notions. 
Instead  of  the  dingy  colours  hitherto  employed, 
the  ware  was  made  as  white  as  possible  with  the 
Stone-ware  body,  or  of  the  deepest  black  with 
the  manganese  glaze  ;  ornamentations  of  different 
coloured  clays  were  sprigged  on  the  ground,  and 
appropriate  inscriptions  added  a  special  interest  to 
presentation  pieces.  From  this  sprang  the  several 
branches  of  English  ceramic  art,  which  we  shall 
now  try  to  follow  up  and  study  successively. 


CHAPTER  II. 


STONE-WARE 


Stone- Ware  and  its  Glaze. — Importations  from  Germany. 
— Mounting  in  Metal. — Stone-Ware  made  in  Eng- 
land.— Early  Patents. — ^John  Dwight  and  his 
Discoveries. — Dwight's  Porcelain. — The 
FuLHAM    "Trouvaille." — Bkf.r 
Boti'les. — Francis  Placf's 
China. — Nottingham 
Ware. — Bear 
Jugs. 


STONE-WARE. 


HE  body  of  Stone- ware  is  composed  of 
plastic  clay,  to  which  is  added  some 
sand  to  prevent  its  cracking  during 
the  manipulation,  and  sometimes  a 
small  quantity  of  ground  biscuit  ware.  Its  hard- 
ness is  due  to  the  high  degree  of  firing  it  has 
to  undergo,  which  slightly  vitrifies  the  substance 
all  through  ;  the  glaze  is  a  sub-silicate  of  soda, 
produced  by  throwing  common  sea  salt  into  the 
oven  when  the  heat  has  reached  its  climax,  the 
fumes  ^xing  upon  the  surface  of  the  ware,  and 
the  soda  being  decomposed,  under  the  action  of 
watery  vapours,  by  the  silica  of  the  paste.  It  is 
a  hard,  resisting  ware,  as  its  name  implies,  but 
not  fit  to  stand  any  sudden  change  of  temperature  ;- 
it  is  very  liable  to^rack  or  split  if  put  upon  the 
fire,  or  at  the  contact  of  boiling  water.  So  in 
Germany,  where  its  manufacture  originated,  it  was 


26 


STONEWARE. 


confined  to  the  making  of  beer  jugs,  tankards,'  or 
merely  ornamental  pieces. 

So  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  many  pieces  of  Stone-ware  found  their 
way  into  England  from  the  manufactories  estab- 
lished along  the  Rhine,  escaping  the  almost 
prohibitory  duties  by  being  smuggled  along  the 
coasts.  Mounted  in  precious  metals,  they  ex- 
cited much  admiration,  and,  however  rough  and 
common,  seem  to  have  been  treasured  by  their 
possessors.  Most  of  them  are  of  plain  brown 
Stone- ware,  with  a  granulated  surface,  but  a  few 
are  of  the  elaborate  white  ware  made  at  Siegburg. 
Some  bear  the  royal  arms,  and  for  this  reason  have 
been  mistaken  for  genuine  English  pieces,  but  in 
many  instances  the  arms  of  some  German  town 
are  blended  with  the  former,  which  by  this  fact 
lose  all  importance  as  an  indication  of  origin. 
The  trade  extended  all  over  the  country  ;  even 
in  Staffordshire  common  stone  grey  pots  have 
been  exhumed,  mixed  with  early  local  pitchers, 
exactly  similar  to  those  found  in  the  Rhenish 
provinces.  We  believe  that  there  is  hardly  a 
town  in  England  where  there  have  not  been  found 
some  of  these  bottles  with  a  grotesque  mask  on 
the  neck,  that  went  by  the  name  of  "  Bellarmine," 
or  **  Greybeard."  Although  some  of  them  were 
afterwards  made  at  Fulham,  the  greater  number 
were  -certainly  of  foreign  manufacture. 

M.  Van  Bastelaer,  in  his  work  upon  the  **  Gres 


STONE- WARE.  27 

C6rames  of  Chatelet  and  Bouffioulx,"  says  that 
the  trade  of  those  important  centres  of  Stone-ware 
pottery  rested  in  the  hands  of  merchants,  who 
made  it  their  business  to  sell  their  productions 
in  Flanders,  and  export  them  abroad.  They  con- 
tracted with  one  or  more  potters  to  buy  all  the 
ware  they  could  make  in  the  year,  or  for  several 
years,  and  had  it  stamped  with  their  own  name  or 
mark  ;  to  that  class  may  belong  the  beer  jug  in 
the  Widerberg  collection  at  Christiania,  which  bears 
the  inscription  : 

(we)  BARRETT  IN  HANDYARD  IN  HOLb(or)n,  LONDON, 

1668. 

Many  of  the  specimens  found  in  England  so 
closely  resemble  those  that  are  known  to  have 
been  manufactured  at  the  above-named  places, 
that  they  may  be  safely  supposed  to  have  had 
the  same   origin. 

The  importation  soon  increased  to  such  an 
extent  that  a  certain  Williayn  Simpson  petitioned 
Queen  Elizabeth,  that  '*  he  may  be  granted  the 
only  license  to  provide  transport  for  the  drinking 
Stone  pots  made  at  Cologne,  which  had  been  so 
far  imported  by  one  Garnet  Tynes,  who  is  not  one 
of  Her  Majesty's  subjects." 

The  selling  of  these  pots  had  become  an  im- 
portant branch  of  home  trade,  and  as  early  as 
1534  the  Pewterers'  Company  had  obtained  power 
to  stamp  their  work  in  the  same  way  as  the  gold- 
smiths   and    silversmiths    stamped   gold    and   silver 


2S 


STONE-WARE. 


plate.  Early  German  jugs  are  frequently  found 
with  the  English  pewter  mount,  stamped  inside 
the  lid  with  the  crowned  Tudor  rose.  It  is  not, 
perhaps,  useless  to  say,  that  as  the  pewter  of 
England  was  considered  the  first  in  quality,  the 
marks  of  the  best  pewter  mounts  made  in  Germany, 
bore  also,  in  imitation  of  the  English  mark,  a  smaller 
rose,  accompanied  with  the  initials  of  the  maker. 

The  great  objection  to  earthenware  had  been  in 
early  times  the  porosity  of  such  half-glazed  pots  as 
were  then  provided  for  common  use,  and  their 
liability  to  break  when  roughly  handled.  The  Stone- 
ware had  neither  of  these  defects  ;  and  here  again 
the  practical  turn  of  the  British  spirit  is  evinced 
by  the  readiness  with  which  people  of  all  classes 
in  England  appreciated  and  patronised  the  hard, 
resisting  ware  of  Germany,  as  soon  as  it  made  its 
appearance  in  this  country.  The  merchants  would 
never  have  thought  of  importing  the  gaudily- 
enamelled  Faience  of  Italy  or  France,  and  no  one 
among  the  early  English  potters  would  have  been 
tempted  to  imitate  it ;  but  all  could  understand  the 
qualities  of  a  new  ware  so  well  adapted  to  their 
requirements  ;  so,  while  the  merchants  were  bring- 
ing over  from  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  large  supplies 
of  Stone  pots,  the  first  efforts  of  the  potters  were 
directed  towards  finding  a  home-made  substitute 
that  would  take  the  place  of  a  foreign  article  so 
much  in  demand.  It  may  be  that  the  first  factories 
of  Stone- ware  were  carried  on  in  England  with  the 


STONE-WARE.  29 

assistance  of  workmen  brought  over  from  Germany 
or  the  low  countries  ;  the  trade  between  England 
and  the  continent  was  increasing  every  day.  As 
German  and  Dutch  potters  were  commonly  coming 
over  to  buy  clays  and  raw  materials,  it  is  probable 
that  the  facilities  the  English  soil  afforded  for 
an  enterprise  of  the  kind  may  have  struck  them 
more  than  once,  and  induced  some  to  settle  here  ; 
but  at  the  same  time  several  patents  were  granted 
which  prove  that  the  national  potter  did  not  mean 
to  leave  the  trade  in  foreign  hands. 

Wtlliitm  Sunpson,  above  mentioned,  after  having 
asked  for  the  sole  license  to  bring  Stone  pots  into 
the  realm,  promises  that,  "  in  him  lieth  the  power  of 
making  such  like  pottes  into  some  decayed  town," 
but  whether  he  carried  it  into  effect  is  not  known. 

In  1626,  a  patent  was  granted  to  Thomas 
Rous  &  Abraham  Cullen,  of  London,  merchant, 
**  Whereas, — heretofore  &  at  the  present  time,  this 
our  Kingdome  of  England  &  other  our  dominions, 
have  been  served  with  Stone  pottes,  Stone  jugges. 
Stone  bottelles,  out  of  foreing  parts  from  beyond 
the  seas,"  a  patent  was  granted  to  Rous  &  Cullen 
for  having  discovered  "  the  art  of  making  Stone 
pottes,"  &c.,  **  never  formerly  used  in  our  King- 
dome  of  England."  We  may  perhaps  remark  here 
that,  although  the  latter  of  these  two  potters 
describes  himself  as  being  of  London,  his  name 
seems  to  imply  that  he,  or  at  least  his  family, 
were   hailing   from   Cologne. 


30  STONE-WARE. 

In  1636,  a  patent  was  granted  to  David 
Ramsey,  Esquire,  and  others,  for,  amongst  other 
inventions,  "  the  making  of  Stone  jugs,  bottelles, 
and  which  now  are  made  by  strangers  in  foreing 
parts." 

In  1 67 1,  a  patent  was  also  granted  to  John 
Dwight,  "•  for  having  discovered  the  mistery  and 
inventions  of  the  Cologne  ware,"  and  also  ''  that 
he  designs  to  introduce  a  manufactory  of  the  same 
ware  into  our  kingdom  of  England,  where  they 
have  not  hitherto  been  wrought  or  made."  To 
this  we  shall  hereafter  more  fully  refer. 

Mr.  Jewitt  (Ceramic  Art  of  Great  Britain) 
gives  the  full  text  of  these  interesting  patents. 
We  cannot  help  being  struck  by  the  way  in 
which  each  ignores  the  previous  ones,  and  we 
fear  that  great  reliance  cannot  be  placed  upon 
records  of  inventions  that  have  left  so  little  trace. 
In  the  first  case  it  is  not  difficult  to  detect  a 
pretence  for  claiming  a  sole  license  to  sell  the 
foreign  ware,  for  which  trade  a  monopoly  had 
not  yet  been  granted.  We  do  not  know  what 
exactly  to  think  of  the  others,  but  no  pieces  or 
**  vouchers*'  that  could  safely  be  attributed  to 
these  men  have  ever  been  identified.  As  to  John 
Dwight,  we  see  that  in  1671  he  claimed  for  him- 
self the  invention  of  *'  the  mistery  of  the  Cologne 
ware ; "  we  have  more  than  sufficient  proof 
that  his  works  soon  competed  successfully  with 
those  of  the  foreigners,  and  even  supplanted  them 


STONE-WARE.  3  ^ 

in  the  London  market ;  in  fact,  the  Glass-Sellers' 
Company  contracted  with  the  inventor  to  buy 
only  of  "  his  English  manufacture,  and  refuse  the 
foreign."  To  him  must  be  attributed  the  founda- 
tion of  an  important  industry  ;  by  his  unremitting 
researches  and  their  practical  application,  he  not 
only  found  the  means  of  supplying  in  large 
quantities  the  daily  wants  of  the  people  with  an 
article  superior  to  anything  that  had  ever  been 
known  before,  but  besides,  by  the  exercise  of  his 
refined  taste  and  uncommon  skill,  he  raised  his 
craft  to  a  high  level ;  nothing  among  the  master- 
pieces of  Ceramic  art  of  all  other  countries 
can  excel  the  beauty  of  DwigMs  brown  Stone- 
ware figures,  either  for  design,  modelling,  or 
fineness   of  material. 

We  know  that  John  Dwight  established  his 
manufactory  at  Fulham  in  1671.  The  exact 
date  of  his  birth  has  not  been  ascertained,  but 
his  biographers  speak  of  him  as  having  been 
educated  at  Oxford,  where  he  was  an  M.A.  of 
Christ  Church,  and  as  having  been  secretary  to 
two  bishops  of  Chester  before  he  became  a 
potter.  Whether  he  modelled  and  decorated  his 
works  by  his  own  hands  is  not  known  through 
any  documents ;  but  by  calling  any  modeller  to 
help  him  in  this  respect  he  would  have  departed 
from  the  custom  of  the  trade  of  the  period.  As 
a  rule,  the  masters  then  used  to  perform  by 
themselves   the   most   delicate   and    difficult    parts 


32  '^  STONE- WARE.      '^ 

of  their  handicraft.  Like  so  many  artistic  •  in- 
novators, he  appears  to  have  been  jealous  of 
his  productions,  and  discontented  with  the  small 
profit  they  brought  him  ;  at  the  end  of  his  career 
he  is  said  to  have  buried  all  tools,  models,  and 
moulds  connected  with  figure-making,  to  prevent 
his  descendants  reproducing  those  figures  after  his 
death.  In  two  little  books  now  in  the  possession 
of  Mr.  T.  C.  Bailey,  the  present  proprietor  of  the 
Fulham  Works,  are  contained  many  recipes  and 
memoranda  written  in  Dwighfs  hand,  with  dates 
ranging  from  1691  to  the  year  1695,  ^^^  follow- 
ing. These  are  full  of  interest,  but,  unfortunately, 
the  wording  is  often  so  obscure  that  little  practi- 
cal information  can  be  derived  from  them ;  many 
of  the  terms  have  become  obsolete,  and  besides, 
some  of  the  mixtures  mentioned  may  have  re- 
ference as  oiften  to  unsuccessful  trials  as  to 
inventions   actually   accomplished. 

For  instance,  these  notes  do  not,,  in  our  opinion, 
throw  any  light  upon  the  problematic  transparent 
porcelain  believed  to  have  been  produced  by 
Dwight,  on  the  strength  of  the  specification  of 
his  patent.  If  we  try  to  summarise  the  more 
likely  recipes  copied  out  of  his  two  books,  and 
study  their  various  components,  we  find  that  in 
each  case,  whether  it  be  *' Stone  clay  for  Gorges," 
** Transparent  Porcelain  or  China  clay,"  ''Light 
Grey  clay  to  endure  boiling  water,"  **  Grey 
Porcelain   by   salt,"   or    any    other,    we    come    to 


STONE-WARE.  S3 

the  conclusion  that  these  compositions  will  merely 
make  a  good   Stone-ware  body. 

In  all  cases  the  principal  ingredients  are  the 
same ;  we  find  the  '*  des^  clay!'  which  is  the 
plastic  clay  of  Dorsetshire  ;  the  **  dark  clay!'  the 
same,  probably,  which  is  now  called  black  clay, 
also  coming  from  Dorsetshire ;  the  "  white  sand!' 
always  used  as  a  component  of  Stone-ware ;  and 
the  ''fine  white!'  probably  a  sort  of  "yr//,"  about 
the  composition  of  which  we  are  left  in  the  dark, 
and  which  is  made  fine  by  being  sifted  through 
the  often-mentioned  Cyprus  sieve.  This  fine  white 
might  be,  if  we  knew  more  about  it,  said  to  be 
a  mixture  conducive  to  the  production  of  an 
artificial  porcelain,  but  not  in  any  case  if  employed 
in  the  way  specified  in  the  book  of  recipes. 

All  the  above  materials  are  mixed  in  numerous 
combinations,  and  by  altering  the  respective  pro- 
portions of  each  the  hardness  of  the  paste  is 
either  increased  or  diminished.  With  them  a 
good  Stone-ware  of  a  whitish  or  light  grey  colour 
could  undoubtedly  be  obtained ;  but  if  we  look 
at  these  mixtures  as  having  any  reference  to  the 
greatest  invention  with  which  Dwight  has  been 
credited  by  tradition,  we  must  maintain  that  none 
of  them  can  in  any  way  produce  a  china  body, 
or  any  other  body  which  in  the  present  accepta- 
tion of  the  word  could  be  called  porcelain. 

Another  explanation  may  perhaps  be  given 
about    his    invention  ;     we    may   labour    under    a 


34  STONE-WARE. 

misconception  of  what  could  be  considered,'  in 
DwigMs  time,  as  a  sufficient  imitation  of  the 
Oriental  porcelain  to  deserve  having  the  same 
name  applied  to  it.  It  may  have  been  nothing 
more  than  the  white  Stone-ware,  glazed  with  salt 
and  highly  fired ;  this  is  transparent  in  the 
thinnest  parts,  and  we  may  assume  that  Salt- 
glazed  ware  was  made  so  thin  for  the  special 
purpose  of  showing  some  translucency.  In 
D wight's  own  words,  reported  by  T.  Houghton, 
we  have  a  description  of  his  china  which  indi- 
cates that  a  Stone-ware,  and  not  a  real  porcelain 
body,  was  produced.  Speaking  about  the  Dorset- 
shire clay,  Dwight  says,  "  'Tis  the  same  earth 
china  ware  is  made  of,  and  'tis  made  not  by 
lying  long  in  the  earth  but  in  the  fire."  We 
need  not  insist  upon  the  fact  that  porcelain,  as 
we  understand  it,  cannot  be  made  with  Dorset- 
shire clay.  He  lays  great  stress  upon  the  high 
temperature  to  which  his  ovens  had  to  be 
brought,  hoping  to  succeed  by  a  greater  fusi- 
bility ;  but  while  making  all  sorts  of  experiments, 
the  probability  is  that  he  continued  to  manufac- 
ture his  white  Stone-ware,  trying  to  make  it 
transparent  by  casting  it  thin  and  firing  it  hard. 
We  are  aware  that  most  of  his  mixtures  required 
a  very  high  temperature ;  there  is,  for  instance, 
in  one  of  the  books,  a  formula  for  a  trial  of  a 
china  glass  (glaze)  which  could  not  be  melted  but 
at  an  exceptionally  high  degree   of  heat ;    but  as, 


STONE-WARE.  35 

from  the  material  with  which  it  is  composed,  we 
do  not  think  that  this  glaze  could  be  suitable 
for  any  china  body,  this  again  affords  another 
proof  that  the  intended  china  was  nothing  like 
what  we  should  now  call  by  the  name  of 
porcelain. 

We  can  see  by  the  description  of  his  succes- 
sive trials  how  much  D wight's  mind  was  en- 
grossed by  the  desire  of  discovering  the  secret 
of  the  Oriental  china  ;  he  mentions  some  speci- 
mens he  had  obtained  of  a  new  ware,  very 
transparent,  but  so  fusible  that  no  upright  pots 
and  only  flat  pieces  could  be  made  with  it.  This 
leads  us  to  surmise  that  his  researches  were 
engaged,  like  those  of  some  of  his  contempora- 
ries, in  the  deceptive  track  of  producing  porcelain 
by  way  of  de-vitrifaction  ;  that  is  to  say,  to  try 
to  impart  opacity  by  excess  of  firing  to  a  mix- 
ture transparent  at  its  first  degree  of  fusion  ;  he 
shared  the  common  mistake  of  his  times,  and  he 
could  not  have  succeeded  any  better  than  those 
who  had  in  vain  before  prosecuted  their  experi- 
ments in  following  the  same  delusion. 

Some  years  ago,  the  attention  of  collectors 
was  directed  to  some  small  jugs  of  unknown 
manufacture  and  strange  appearance.  With  their 
globular  shape  and  their  ribbed  necks,  they  are 
so  much  like  the  stone  pots  made  at  Fulham 
that  by  some  they  were  thought  to  be  probably 
specimens    of     DwigMs    porcelain.       The    paste. 


36  STONE-WARE. 

somewhat  resembling  our  modern  parlan,  is  very 
transparent,  and  covered  with  a  good  lead  glaze. 
Mr.  Willett  has  been  fortunate  enough  to  gather 
together  several  of  these  very  rare  pieces  ;  they 
are  all  clumsily  made,  and  most  of  them  have 
the  appearance  of  being  mere  trials  ;  but  a  small 
mug  of  this  ware  is  especially  interesting,  as 
showing  an  imperfect  attempt  at  a  coloured  de- 
coration, decidedly  Old  English  in  style,  a  fact 
which  might  weigh  against  the  opinion  of  some 
collectors  who  attribute  to  them  a  Chinese  origin. 

The  handle  of  another  small  jug  now  in  our 
collection  has  been  analysed  by  Professor  Church, 
who  found  it  contained  nearly  5  per  cent,  of 
soda,  a  quantity  very  unusual  in  any  other 
variety  of  china.  To  us  it  is  very  doubtful 
whether  these  pieces  were  ever  made  at  Fulham  ; 
we  do  not  attach  any  importance  to  the  shape, 
which  was  imitated  from  German  Stone-ware 
jugs ;  they  may  be  the  work  of  some  unknown 
English  potter,  or  perhaps  essays  made  on  the 
Continent.  At  all  events,  none  of  the  recipes 
or  materials  set  down  in  Dwight's  two  books 
could  result  in  the  production  of  a  ware  of  that 
sort,  and  the  **  mistery  of  transparent  earthen- 
ware "  still   remains   a  mystery. 

The  colouring  oxides  employed  on  the  surface 
of  his  Stone-ware  were  cobalt  and  manganese,  the 
purple  and  blue  of  the  Gres  de  Flandres.  The 
bodies    were   often    tinted    in   the   mass ;   the  blue 


STONE-WARE.  37 

Stone-ware  was  coloured  with  zaffre,  the  brown 
Stone  with  oxide  of  iron  or  ochre,  and  the  Red 
Porcelain  was  made  with  Staffordshire  clay,  pro- 
bably in  imitation  of  that  of  the  Elers.  Sometimes 
the  bodies  were  blended  together  so  as  to  form  a 
sort  of  grey  and  white  marble,  and  then  relieved 
by  the  application  of  ornaments  made  of  white 
clay. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  Fulham  *'  trouvaille " 
we  should  still  be  in  the  dark  as  to  the  precise 
characteristics  of  Dwighfs  ware.  Twenty-eight 
pieces,  which  had  been  preserved  in  the  family, 
passed  in  1862  into  the  possession  of  Mr.  Baylis, 
who  at  the  time  wrote  an  account  of  them  in  the 
^'  Art  Journal^  Most  of  DwigMs  different  fabrics 
are  there  represented,  yet  not  a  single  piece  of 
porcelain  was  found  amongst  them  ;  a  few,  like  the 
white  ware  mug  with  Hogarth's  **  Midnight  Con- 
versation," the  butter  boat  in  the  Chelsea  style, 
and  the  pickle  leaves,  were  either  the  works  of  his 
successors  or  purchases  made  from  other  potters 
and  destined  to  serve  as  models. 

But  we  are  fully  enlightened  upon  the  merits 
of  his  Stone-ware  by  the  admirable  half-length 
figure  (now  preserved  in  the  South  Kensington 
Museum)  of  his  infant  daughter,  Lydia  D wight, 
who  died,  as  related  by  the  inscription  incised  at 
the  rear,  March  3,  1672  ;  she  was  modelled  after 
her  death,  lying  on  a  pillow  (Fig.  6).  We  fancy 
we  can  trace  the  loving  care  of  a  bereaved  father 


3^  STONE-WARE. 

in  the  reproduction  of  the  features,  and  the  minute 
perfection  with  which  the  accessories,  such  as 
flowers  and  lace,  are  treated.  A  still  more  touch- 
ing memento  of  the  beloved  child  exists  in  Mr. 
Willett's  collection  ;  it  is  her  little  hand  cast  from 
nature,  and  reproduced  in  Stone-ware.     Beautifully 


Fig.  6. 
Stoneware  Figure,  bv  John  Dwight,  South  Kensington  Museum. 

modelled  also  were  the  life-size  busts  of  Charles  II., 
James  I.,  and  their  Queens,  and  a  small  figure  of 
Cer^s  made  of  the  same  light-grey  clay,  now  in 
the  possession  of  the  Rev.  T.  Staniforth.  The 
mythologic   figures,    in   imitation    of    bronze,    were 


STONE-WARE. 


39 


especially  remarkable ;  the  Jupiter  of  the  Liverpool 
Museum  and  the  Meleager  (Fig.  7)  of  the  British 
Museum,  are  worthy  of  an  Italian  artist  of  the 
Renaissance ;  the  others,  no 
less  interesting,  are  unfor- 
tunately dispersed.  Included 
in  the  same  collection  were 
also  some  fancy  figures  of 
a  shepherdess,  a  sportsman, 
etc.,  a  few  marbled  bottles 
of  his  Agate-ware,  and  a 
blue  and  white  dish  bearing 
the  royal  arms  in  the  centre, 
said  to  have  been  one  of  a 
set  made  for  Charles   I. 

Another  find  was  made 
a  few  years  ago,  when,  in 
pulling  down  some  old 
buildings,  the  workmen 
came  across  a  vaulted  cel- 
lar, containing  a  lot  of  beer 
bottles  and  fragments  of 
jugs  painted  with  the  blue 
and  purple  grounds  gene- 
rally seen  on  the  Gres  de 
Flandres  ;  many  were  in  the 
shape  of  Bellarmines  or  Grey-beards,  having  the 
grotesque  head  impressed  on  the  neck  ;  others 
were  nearly  of  the  same  shape,  but  with  plain 
neck,   and  stamped   on   the  body   with  crests  and 


Fig.  7.    Meleager,  by  Dwight, 
British  Museum. 


40 


STONE-WARE. 


badges,  a  crowned  C  (Fig.  8),  Tudor  roses,  letters, 
figures  of  birds  and  animals,  such  as  cocks  and 
stags,  these  having  reference  probably  to  the  inns 
for  which  they   were  manufactured. 


Fig.  8.    Dwight  Stone-ware.    Coll.  L.  S. 


This  makes  the  identification  of  genuine  speci- 
mens very  difficult,  for  these  specimens  are  very 
similar  to  those  imported  from  abroad  ;  both  wares 
are  of  the  same  colour,  shape,  and  material,  and 
the  decoration  is  identical,  the  larger  portion 
bearing  always  the  portraits  or  monograms  of 
William  and  Mary,  Queen  Anne,  George  I.,  and 
George  II. 


STONE-WARE.  4 1 

For  a  long  time  after  DwigJds  death  his 
descendants  continued  to  manufacture  the  same 
sort  of  jugs  and  mugs.  In  cottages  along  the 
banks  of  the  Thames  have  been  found  many  large 
tankards,  with  the  names  of  well-known  public- 
houses.  These  tankards  are  of  a  particular  brown 
Stone-ware,  embossed  with  subjects  that  permit  us 
to  range  them  in  the  class  of  speaking  pottery. 
Upon  a  large  mug,  evidently  designed  for  a  sports- 
man, are  depicted  graphic  records  of  a  hunting 
day  :  the  flying  game  and  the  running  dogs,  the 
sun  shining  upon  scattered  trees,  the  huntsman 
himself  mounted  on  his  horse,  and  the  inn  where 
he  stopped  for  a  welcome  rest.  The  picture  was 
sometimes  completed  with  an  inscription  incised 
in  the  clay.  Thus  we  have  seen  the  following 
lines  on  a  mug  of  similar  character :  "  On  Bansted 
down  a  hare  Was  fotmd  which  led  a  smok- 
iiig  round,  Abraham  Hamman,  Sussex^  1725." 
Another  mug  in  our  collection  is  made  of  grey 
ware,  partially  coloured  with  brown.  The  decora- 
tion carries  with  it  a  political  meaning.  In  the 
centre  is  a  medallion  of  Queen  Anne,  supported 
by  two  beef-eaters,  but  the  portrait  was  not  suffi- 
ciently life-like  to  permit  of  dispensing  with  an 
inscription,  and  so  we  read  round  the  top : 
''Drink  to  the  pious  memory  of  good  Queen 
Anne,  1729."  As  the  date  is  nineteen  years 
after  that  of  the  death  of  the  Queen,  we  may 
conjecture   that    the    mug   was   made    for   an   old 


42  STONE-WARE. 

servant  proud  of  his  loyalty  to  his  late  sovereign ; 
the  potter  knew  that  nothing  could  please  him 
more  than  a  gift  bearing  such  an  inscription. 
One  can  realise  the  feeling  of  the  old  toper, 
when,  drinking  a  convivial  draught  out  of  his 
favourite  mug,  he  could  take  the  opportunity  to 
discourse  with  his  friends  about  his  past  services, 
and  what  he  remembered  of  the  good  old  time. 
The  pack  of  dogs  is  again  running  at  the  bottom ; 
even  on  those  made  in  our  days  there  is  hardly 
a  piece  of  Stone-ware  where  they  are  not  seen. 
Others,  more  frequently  met  with,  have  a  coarse 
reproduction  of  Hogarth's  "  Midnight  Conversa- 
tion," in  imitation  of  a  Staffordshire  Salt-glaze 
mug,  a  copy  of  which  was  found  in  the  Fulham 
"  trouvaille  ;  "  all  these  can  safely  be  ascribed  to 
the  same  manufacture.  The  history  of  the  Fulham 
factory  is  related  at  length  by  Chaffers,  and  we 
learn  that  it  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  family 
until   1862. 

At  the  Manor  House  at  York,  Francis  Place 
was  experimenting  upon  clays  towards  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century ;  his  trial  pieces  went  by 
the  name  of  porcelain.  One  of  them  is  preserved 
in  the  Jermyn  Street  Museum  ;  it  is  a  small  cup, 
neatly  turned,  of  brown  Stone-ware,  streaked  with 
black  in  the  same  manner  as  Dwighfs  Agate-ware, 
but  highly  glazed.  Few  other  authenticated  speci- 
mens, if  any,  are  in  existence,  and  the  very  name 
of  Place  would,  no  doubt,  have  been  forgotten  by 


STONE-WARE.  43 

this  time,  but  for  a  few  lines  written  by  Horace 
Walpole  in  reference  to  the  above-mentioned  cup, 
which  was  in  his  possession,  and  so  much  treasured 
by  him  that  he  kept  it  enclosed,  like  a  jewel,  in 
a  handsome  leather  case. 

In  the  Staffordshire  Potteries,  about  1685,  Miles 
and  some  other  potters  are  said  to  have  made 
Stone-ware  ;  the  probability  is  that  they  called  by 
that  name  a  rough  sort  of  brown  pottery  smeared 
with  lead.  As  salt-glazing  was  only  introduced  a 
few  years  afterwards  by  the  Elers,  the  real  article 
cannot  have  been  manufactured  before  the  begin- 
ning of  the  next  century  ;  at  that  time  the  making 
of  the  white  Stone-ware,  as  we  shall  see  in  the 
chapter  on  Salt-glaze,  became  the  staple  trade  of 
the  country,  and  with  it  common  utensils,  as  well 
as  ornamental  pieces,  were  produced  in  an  enor- 
mous quantity. 

The  manufacture  of  brown  Stone-ware  became 
localised  in  the  Midland  counties  between  Not- 
tingham, Chesterfield,  and  Derby,  and  so  developed 
itself  as  almost  to  exclude  every  other  common 
sort  of  earthenware.  Pieces  made  in  that  district 
are  easily  distinguishable  from  those  of  Fulham  ; 
they  affect  particular  shapes — loving  cups,  small 
straight  mugs,  puzzle  jugs,  and  dark  bears  ; 
the  glaze  is  very  smooth  instead  of  being 
granulated,  lustrous  and  metallic  in  appearance, 
and  the  decoration,  instead  of  subjects  in  relief, 
consists    mainly    of    scrolls,    foliage,    and    flowers. 


44  STONE-WARE. 

scratched   with    a    point    in    the    wet    clay    before 
baking. 

At  Nottingham,  crucibles  for  glass-makers  were 
made  at  a  very  early  period,  and  from  this  the 
potters  were  easily  led  to  the  making  of  Stone- 
ware. L.  Jewitt  describes  the  earliest  example 
known  ;  it  is  a  posset  pot  dated  1 700,  made  for 
S.  Watkinson,  the  mayor  of  the  town  ;  it  has  all 
the  features  that  characterise  a  ware  which  for 
two  centuries  has  not  undergone  any  alteration  in 
style.      The   shape    is    thrown    and    turned,    with 


Fig.  9.    Nottingham  Stone-ware.    Coll.  L.  S. 

handles  made  by  hand ;  the  inscription  is  in  cursive 
characters,  the  flowers  underneath  are  only  incised 
in  coarse  lines,  and  the  glaze  is  lustred  by  the 
remetallisation  of  the  oxide  of  iron.  Many  other 
pieces  are  known,  which  are  precisely  similar  as 
to  clay  and  glaze  ;  the  scrolls,  rosettes,  and  the 
conventional  pink  flowers  are  scratched  with  but 
little  variation ;   the  dates  they  bear  widely  differ, 


STONE-WARE. 


45 


ranging  from  the  earliest  times  down  even  to  our 
own,  and  yet  they  all  look  as  though  they  had 
been  done  by  the  same  hand.  We  give  here  the 
sketch  of  a  small  jug  of  brown  stone  (Fig.  9), 
made  with  a  double  shell,  the  outer  one  being 
perforated  with  flowers  and  leaves,  to  make  it 
look  as  if  the  body  was  pierced  throughout.  It 
belongs  to  the  best  period  of  manufacture^  and  is 


Piu.  10.    Nottingham  Stone-wake,  Nottingham  Museum. 

similar  in  size  and  design  to  the  one  preserved 
in  the  South  Kensington  Museum,  which  bears  the 
date  1 703.  Besides  these  pieces,  we  may  name  the 
following  :  in  the  Bohn  collection,  a  jug  inscribed 
**John  Smith,  1712;"  in  the  Jermyn  Street 
Museum,  a  punch  bowl  with  "  Old  England  for 
ever,  1750;"  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Kidd,  of 
Nottingham,    a    mug    very    elaborately    decorated 


*46  STONE-WARE. 

with  roses  and  thistles,  dated  1762;  in  the  Not- 
tingham Museum,  a  tall  cylindrical  mug,  here 
represented  (Fig.  10),  upon  which  is  inscribed, 
**J.  &  E.  Holland,  of  Notts.,  made  at  Nottingham 
Feb.  16,  1781  ;"  and  **  Why  not  this  poor  earthen 
vessel  hold  as  precious  a  liquor  as  one  made  of 
gold?"  and  in  our  own  collection,  a  puzzle  jug 
of  1799.  Neither  these,  nor  the  modern  jugs 
and  mugs,  though  ranging  together  over  a  period 
of  nearly  two  hundred  years,  show  any  perceptible 
change  either  in  manufacture  or  in  decoration,  and 
confirm  what  we  have  just  said  on  the  subject. 

A  curious  speciality  of  the  Stone-ware  potters 
of  the  Midlands  were  the  black  bear  jugs.  We 
all  remember  the  Bradwardine  Bear  in  Sir  Walter 
Scott's  Waverley ;  it  was  a  vessel  peculiar  in 
shape  to  the  old  English  squire,  as  the  glass  or 
silver  boot  was  to  the  German  landgrave.  Was 
not  the  good  Briton  readier  for  a  laugh  and  a 
joke  when  he  had  emptied  the  comical  head  of 
the  bear,  whose  uncouth  body  contained  the  foam- 
ing beer,  than  when  his  drink  was  poured  out  for 
him  from  a  common-place  jug  of  stiff  and  classical 
shape,  at  the  sight  of  which  he  felt  bound  to 
assume  a  dignified  and  formal  countenance  ."^  We 
must  confess  that  they  look  rather  grim  and 
hideous ;  the  body,  coated  with  a  very  dark 
brown,  is  made  rough  by  a  sprinkling  of  small 
shavings  of  clay  ;  eyes  and  teeth  are  of  shining 
white  paste  ;  an  iron  chain  is  fastened  to  the  collar. 


STONE- WARE.  47 

and  a  staff  is  fixed  between  the  claws.  Such  as 
they  were,  in  that  time  of  bear-baiting  they  had 
a  great  sale,  and  were  used  either  as  tobacco  jars 
or  beer  jugs  ;  the  movable  head  in  the  latter  case 
made  a  convenient  cup.  At  Congleton,  in  Cheshire, 
nicknamed  the  bear's  town,  on  account  of  the  par- 
tiality of  the  inhabitants  for  those  rough  sports, 
they  were  in  great  demand,  and  large  numbers  of 
them  have  been  found  there,  either  of  white  or 
brown  Stone-ware. 

These  bears  were  made  at  Nottingham,  Chester- 
field, and  Brampton,  where  originated  the  making 
of  those  ponderous  jugs  and  mugs  with  handles 
formed  in  the  shape  of  a  grey-hound,  a  pattern  to 
which  they  still  adhere  in  our  days,  and  which  is 
not  going  to  be  given  up,  if  we  may  judge  from 
the  large  quantity  of  them  still   turned  out. 

We  must  insist  upon  the  difference  that  distin- 
guishes the  works  of  the  factories  just  spoken  of 
from  those  made  at  Fulham  and  the  South  of 
England.  No  doubt  the  grey  and  brown  Stone- 
wares were  first  produced  at  the  latter  place,  but 
thence  the  trade  must  soon  have  been  carried  to 
such  locality  as  presented  all  the  requisite  materials 
wanted  for  this  fabrication,  viz. : — the  proper  sort 
of  clay,  and  abundance  of  coals  and  salt.  The 
Midland  counties  afforded  all  these  commodities, 
and  this  was  certainly  known  by  all  the  potters 
of  the  South,  and  may  have  induced  some  of  them 
to  go  and  setde  on  such  promising  spots.     Difficult 


4^  STONE-WARE. 

though  communication  was  in  those  days,  there  yet 
must  have  been  a  regular  intercourse  between 
potters  working  at  a  great  distance  from  each 
other.  We  shall  take  only  the  instance  of  Dwight 
giving  in  his  notebook  the  recipe  for  making  the 
red  teapots  with  Staffordshire  clay,  in  the  manner 
of  the  ElerSy  almost  at  the  same  time  as  the 
Dutchmen  were  producing  them  at   Bradwell. 

But  in  the  Midland  potteries  the  style  of  the 
Stone-ware  underwent  a  thorough  change  ;  while 
in  London  the  Stone  pots  continued  for  a  long 
time  to  be  made  in  imitation  of  foreign  models, 
greybeards  at  first,  and  subsequently  globular  jugs 
with  royal  monograms,  it  was  reserved  for  the 
uneducated  workmen  of  these  far-away  counties  to 
free  their  productions  from  alien  reminiscences, 
and  to  create  shapes  and  decorations  which,  plain 
and  unpretending  as  they  were,  could  yet  without 
question  be  called  their  own. 

The  superiority  of  Stone-ware  over  every  other 
sort  of  pottery  for  the  uses  of  industry,  either  for 
utensils  or  for  sanitary  works,  is  so  marked  that 
its  manufacture  has  always  been  on  the  increase, 
and  the  processes  constantly  improved  ;  but  little 
had  been  done  to  turn  its  merits  into  an  artistic 
channel  since  the  days  of  Dwight,  until  Mr,  H, 
Doulton  created  the  new  style  by  which  4:he 
Lambeth  ware  has  become  known  and  admired 
by  the  amateurs  of  Ceramic  art  all  the  world 
over. 


CHAPTER  III, 


SLIP-DECORATED  WARE. 


The  Slip  Process. — Its  Antiquity. — Its  Introduction  into 
England. — Localities  where   it  was  Practised. — The 
Staffordshire  Potters. — A  Pot  Works  in  the  Moor- 
lands.— Dr.     Plot's     Account. — Reckoning. — 
Varieties  of  Shapes. — Names  of  some  Slip 
Potters. — The  Lettering  and   other 
sorts  of  Decoration. — A  New  Style 
of  Slip  Painting. — Richness  of 
Colour. — Metal  Mounts. — 
Inscriptions. — Modern 
Slip  Ware. 


Fig   II.    Slip  Dish— Wolverhampton  Exhibition. 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 


n 


HIS  process,  the  simplest  of  all  the 
means  of  polychrome  decoration  em- 
ployed in  early  times,  since  it  required 
nothing  but  the  natural  materials 
picked  out  of  the  earth,  the  Old  English  potter, 
in  some  sort,  made  his  own  by  the  diversity  of 
effects  he  contrived  to  create  out  of  it.  It  con- 
sisted in  producing  a  design  on  the  surface  of 
the  piece  by  pouring,  through  a  small  pipe,  clay 
diluted  with  water  to  the  consistency  of  a  batter  ; 
this  **  slip  "  flowed  in  running  traceries,  or 
dropped  in  small  dots,  boldly  contrasting  with 
the  colour  of  the  ground.  The  Romans  used  it 
very  cleverly,  and  many  pieces  are  still  preserved 
in  museums,  testifying  to  the  skill  with  which  it 
was  handled.  Graceful  flowery  stems  are  inter- 
mixed with  running  animals,  stags  and  dogs, 
whose  curved  limbs  are  all  produced  by  the  same 


52       '*  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

jet  of  slip,  freely  poured  through  the  narrow 
spout  of  a  vessel  contrived  to  that  end.  Brong- 
niard  mentions  the  discovery  at  Lezoux  (France) 
of  one  of  these  **  pipettes,"  at  the  same  place 
where  fragments  so  decorated  were  found.  That 
"  pipette  "  presented  at  the  lower  aperture  holes 
of  different  shapes,  appropriated,  no  doubt,  to 
the  size  of  the  intended  design.  A  little  vessel 
of  almost  the  same  shape  was,  for  the  same 
purpose,  used  in  Staffordshire  ;  to  its  spout  quills 
of  various    calibre   were   fixed ;    when   filled    with 


Fig.  12.    Pouring  out  the  Sup. 


diluted  clay,  the  air  was  only  admitted  into  the 
receptacle  through  a  little  hole  pierced  on  the 
upper  part,  and  the  stopping  of  this  hole  with 
the  thumb  was  sufficient  to  check  the  flow  of 
the  slip.  In  that  way  it  was  allowed  to  run  un- 
checked to  form  the  outline ;  dots  were,  on  the 
contrary,  produced  by  the  intermittent  admission 
of  air.  We  give  here  a  sketch  which  will  com- 
plete our  description  (Fig.    12). 

What  connection  there  is  between   the   Roman 
red  ware,  ornamented  with  trailings  of  white  clay, 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 


53 


and  the  oldest  Slip-decorated  English  pieces,  if, 
indeed,  there  is  any,  remains  to  be  ascertained. 
Prior  to  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
we  do  not  find  any  specimens  that  we  could 
properly  call  decorated  in  that  manner.  The 
early  tygs,  made  in  the  first  part  of  that  century, 


mmmmf 


Fig.  13.    Tyg,  Liverpool  Museum. 


bear  only  applications  of  small  pieces  of  yellow 
clay,  which  seem  to  have  been  pressed  separately 
in  moulds  and  stuck  on.  We  shall  give  as  an 
example  the  one  preserved  in  the  Liverpool 
Museum,  which  is  dated  161 2  (Fig.  13).  Is  there 
any  connection  between  the  English   process   and 


54  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

the  one  used  in  Switzerland  and  Germany  ?  And 
was  it  through  Wrotham,  in  Kent,  that  it  may- 
have  passed  into  Staffordshire  ?  Considering  that 
examples  made  at  Wrotham  are  somewhat  earlier 
than  the  dated  pieces  of  Staffordshire,  so  much 
might  be  surmised  ;  but  the  truth  is  difficult  to 
ascertain,  as  pieces  undoubtedly  anterior  to  what 
we  possess  in  England  are  very  scarce  on  the 
Continent. 

Howbeit,  at  the  date  we  speak  of,  we  find 
this  fabrication  established  in  many  counties.  In 
Kent  it  was  carried  on  at  Sandwich,  where  a 
Dutch  potter  is  known  to  have  settled  in  1582  ; 
and  also  at  Wrotham,  where  very  elaborate  ware 
was  made,  including  posset  pots,  dishes,  candle- 
sticks, and  many  different  sorts  of  fanciful  jugs 
and  bottles.  .Although  the  earliest  piece  we  know 
(a  jug  in  the  Maidstone  Museum)  refers  us  only  to 
1656,  many  others  that  can  be  ascribed  to  that 
locality  seem  by  the  style  of  the  decoration  to 
belong  to  an  earlier  period.  Owing  probably  to 
the  proximity  of  the  Metropolis,  the  workman  there 
shows  a  knowledge  of  the  ornaments  employed 
by  the  artist  of  the  Renaissance  on  architectural 
sculptures,  carved  wood-work,  the  chasing  of 
silver,  and  the  patterns  of  embroidered  cloths. 
The  Fleur  de  Lys  and  the  Pomegranate  appear 
frequently.  Dies,  taken  from  metal  work,  began 
to  be  used  for  stamping  on  the  decoration  ;  we 
possess   a   terrine,    or   pie-dish,   upon  which  many 


SLIP-DECORATED     WARE.  55 

subjects  of  figures,  reclining  nymphs,  and  in- 
describable groups,  are  reproduced,  borrowed 
evidently  from  the  work  of  some  facetious 
silversmith  of  the  sixteenth  century.  These 
pieces  are  generally  distinguishable  from  those 
we  find  in  other  districts  by  an  overcrowded 
ornamentation.  The  handles  on  the  posset  pots 
are  multiplied  and  covered  with  knobs,  and  all 
spaces  between  the  principal  subjects  are  filled  in 
with  a  diaper  of  rosettes  or  stars.  A  stick,  the 
end  of  which  had  been  cut  as  a  sort  of  rough 
seal,  was  used  to  impress  the  desired  pattern 
in  the  moist  clay,  and  the  design  is  in  some 
places  coloured  over  with  copper  green,  seldom, 
if  ever,  found  on  the  old  Staffordshire  slip-ware. 
Wrotham  productions,  generally  of  a  highly  orna- 
mental style,  were  often  inscribed  with  the  name  of 
the  place,  but  little  is  known  about  the  potters 
who  worked  there.  Chaffers  gives  Jtdl  as  the 
name  of  one  of  them;  and  the  site  of  his  manu- 
factory is  known  to  have  belonged  to  one  John 
Evelyn,  cousin  to  the  author  of  "John  Evelyn's 
Diary,"  to  whom,  perhaps,  refers  the  monogram 
I.  E.,  often  recurring  on  tygs  and  other  presen- 
tation pieces  (Fig.  14).  Antiquaries  have  as  yet 
taken  little  trouble  to  gather  documents  concerning 
the  productions  of  Wrotham,  as  has  been  done  for 
the  Staffordshire  Potteries.  It  may  be  accounted 
for   in  this  way,   that   the  facts  connected   with   a 

manufacture    which    was    to    disappear    completely 
6 


56 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 


after  so  promising  a  start  are  less  interesting  to 
historians  than  those  which  refer  to  a  district 
where  the  same  industry  slowly  advanced  year  by 
year  through  a  course  of  improvements  until  it 
had   reached  its  present  high  state  of  excellence. 


Fig.  14.    Wrotham  Ware. 


The  manufacture  was  also  carried  on  in  York- 
shire,  where,  as  the  traditionary  distich  has    it — 

"  At  Yearsley  there  was  pancheons  made, 
By  Willie  Wedgwood,  that  young  blade." 

In  Cheshire,  we  may  infer  that  the  ware  was 
manufactured  extensively,  from  the  fact  of  so  many 
slip   dishes   having    been   discovered   all   over   the 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  57 

county,  and  on  the  borders  of  North  Wales.  At 
the  present  time,  indeed,  at  Buckley,  a  few  miles 
from  Chester,  they  have  not  discontinued  the 
practice  of  the  oldest  style,  and  are  turning  out 
slip  pieces  which,  with  a  little  scratching  and  chip- 
ping, might  be  mistaken  for  the  work  of  two 
hundred  years  ago.  Tygs,  of  course,  they  are 
no  longer,  but  the  identical  shapes  now  do  duty 
for  flower  pots. 


Fig.  15.    Early  Tickenhall  Ware. — Coll.  L.  S. 

In  Derbyshire,  at  Tickenhall,  have  been,  found 
interesting  fragments  of  pottery,  made  of  buff  clay, 
occasionally  streaked  with  brown  slip ;  some  of 
them,  in  the  shape  of  roughly-formed  heads,  with 
head-gears  and  ruffs  of  the  Elizabethan  period, 
seem  to  indicate  that  they  belong  to  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  potters*  field  must  have  occupied 
at  the  time  a  very  large  area ;  since  fragments 
have  been  found  there  upon  ground  extending 
over  two  miles  in  length  (Fig.   15).     Miss  Lovell, 


58  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

of  Caike  Abbey,  Derby,  who  has  directed  the  ex- 
cavations carried  out  on  the  site,  has  presented  to 
the  Jermyn  Street  Museum  some  curious  tygs  and 
bottles  of  this  ware,  selected  from  the  collection 
she  has  herself  been  able  to  gather  together.  The 
place  is  mentioned  as  early  as  1630  by  Philip 
Kinder,  and  later  on,  in  181 1,  by  Farey  (General 
View  of  Derbyshire),  as  being  the  centre  hi  a 
very  important  manufacture  of  earthen  utensils. 
The  industry  has  now  left  the  spot  altogether. 
Slip-decoration  followed  there  the  impulse  given 
in  the  Potteries,  as  is  shown  by  the  two  authen- 
ticated Tickenhall  dishes  now  in  the  possession 
of  Mr.  W.  Bemrose.  They  are  made  of  the  usual 
buff  clay,  coated  with  dark  brown,  and  decorated 
with  subjects  of  dogs,  trees,  and  flowers,  traced  in 
yellow  slip.  >  Many  of  the  slip  dishes,  commonly 
known  as  Toft  dishes,  had  probably  the  same 
origin. 

But  it  was  in  Staffordshire  that  the  slip  process 
was  to  become  almost  a  staple  trade  ;  there  it 
may  be  more  easily  studied  ;  there  the  old  potter 
has  left  many  records  that  will  permit  us  to  follow 
his  progress.  Was  he  himself  the  originator,  or 
did  he  take  the  hint  from  one  of  those  itinerant 
workmen  who,  at  that  period,  used  to  begin  life 
by  travelling  from  place  to  place  for  a  few  years, 
learning  a  trifle  here,  and  there  imparting  the 
small  knowledge  they  had  acquired  in  their 
travels  ?     Who  can  tell  ?     At  all  events,  he  soon 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  59 

created  a  style  of  his  own,  where  imitation  is  not 
discernible.  What  did  he  care  about  the  costly 
vessels  then  used  by  the  nobleman  and  the 
wealthy  ?  Himself  one  of  the  people,  he  made  the 
ware  of  the  people.  Simple  in  his  ways  as  his 
fathers  had  been  before  him,  he  worked  out  his 
steady  improvements  as  a  matter  of  course,  and 
each  step  forward  accomplished  by  one  member 
of  the  craft,  benefited  the  whole  community.  No 
patents  were  taken  out,  no  secrets  were  kept,  and 
from  one  end  of  the  Staffordshire  Potteries  to  the 
other  all  ovens  turned  out  goods  of  the  same 
description. 

Miserable  enough  was  the  condition  of  the  pot 
maker  in  Staffordshire,  but  the  district  afforded  so 
many  advantages  for  the  production  of  earthen- 
ware, that  it  may  be  easily  understood  how  it  was 
that  their  number  increased  so  rapidly.  Clays 
and  coal  could  be  had  by  merely  scratching  the 
soil.  The  tilewright,  a  name  given  to  the  worker 
in  clay  whether  he  made  tiles,  butter  pots,  or 
crocks,  was  at  no  loss  for  his  materials  ;  and  so, 
notwithstanding  the  sequestered  situation  of  the 
locality,  he  soon  commenced  to  improve  his  ware, 
and  to  find  means  of  sending  it  away,  first  over 
the  Midland  Counties,  and  then  to  the  very  ends 
of  the  kingdom. 

Miss  Meteyard,  in  her  life  of  Wedgwood,  gives 
an  interesting  and  forcible  description  of  a  pot 
work    in   the   Moorlands   in   the   seventeenth   cen- 


6o 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 


tury.      The  oven — only  one — was  eight  feet  high 
and  six  feet  wide.     It  was  surrounded  by  a  wall 
of  broken  saggers  to  keep  the  heat  in,  and  this 
wall,    later   on,    became   the    hovel.       It    stood    in 
a    secluded   spot,    most   often    at   the   crossing   of 
two  roads,   near  a  little  stream  of  water.      Round 
the    oven    clustered    the    open    sheds    where    the 
different    operations    necessary    to    complete    each 
piece    were    performed,    and   the    family   dwelling, 
a   small    thatched   cottage.      The   thrower   worked 
in     one    place  ;     the    contrivance    he     used     was 
of     the     simplest     description,     being     rather     a 
**  whirler "    than   a   potter's    wheel.       The    potter's 
wheel    is    kept    in    rotation,    while    the   hand    that 
fashions   the   clay   into   shape   remains  fixed  ;    the 
whirler    differs    from    the    wheel    in    this    respect, 
that  one  hand  turns  it  at  intervals,  bringing  suc- 
cessively   before    the    other    hand   the   parts    that 
have   to    be    rounded.      Next   to   the   thrower   sat 
the  handler,  sticking  on  the  handles  and  spouts  ; 
what  tools  he  used  were  certainly  very  primitive, 
being   nothing   more    than   a   pointed   bit   of    iron 
and  a  flattened  strip  of  wood.      In  another  shed 
were   the   man  who   traced   upon   the  best   pieces 
fanciful    scrolls    and    lines    of    slip,    and    he    who 
through    a    coarse    cloth    dusted    upon    them   the 
pulverised   galena    for    glazing.      Very   often    the 
same    man    performed    all    these    different    tasks. 
Close  by,   the  diluted  clay  was  evaporated   in  the 
sun-pan,    until     it    became     thick    enough    to    be 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  6l 

conveniently  worked,  or  else  the  moistened  clay  was 
thrown  against  a  dry  wall,  from  which,  the  water 
becoming  evaporated,  the  lumps  fell  upon  the 
ground,  ready  to  be  stored  in  a  damp  place  for 
further  use.  Isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  world 
the  potter  worked  there,  attended  by  his  sons  and 
his  wife.  Sometimes  a  labourer  or  two  completed 
the  staff,  which  never  seems  to  have  numbered 
more  than  eight  people.  When  the  stock  was 
ready  for  sale,  the  wife  took  it  to  the  nearest 
fair,  leading,  pipe  in  mouth,  the  double-panniered 
asses,  and  there  either  sold  her  goods  to  the 
cratemen,  or  exchanged  them  at  the  town  shops 
for  such  articles  as  she  wanted  to  take  back 
home. 

In  his  History  of  Staffordshire,  published  in 
1686,  Plot  gives  a  valuable  account  of  the  manu- 
facture of  pottery  at  that  period.  The  complete 
quotation  has  been  given  many  times,  so  we  shall 
only  recall  here  its  principal  features. 

Many  sorts  of  clays  had  already,  as  we  may 
see,  been  experimented  upon,  and  their  different 
uses  settled,  as  well  as  their  mixing.  Four  dif- 
ferent kinds  were  called  "  throwing "  clays,  and 
were  used  to  form  the  bodies  of  the  vessels. 
These  were  the  Bottle-clay  and  the  White-clay^ 
of  which  the  light-coloured  ware  was  made  (this 
was  always  of  a  dull  yellow  colour,  for,  light  as 
the  clay  was,  the  glaze  gave  it  a  deep  tint) ;  the 
Hard  Firt  and  Red  Blending-clay,  .which,   mixed 


62  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

together,  produced  a  black  ware.  Of  more  pliable 
nature,  and  used  only  for  decorative  purposes, 
**  to  paint  with,"  were  the  Orange,  the  White, 
and  the  Red  Slips,  the  last  named  of  which,  when 
mixed  with  manganese,  turned  black  under  the 
glaze.  All  these  are  easily  distinguishable  on  the 
works  of  that  period. 

The  author  goes  on  to  tell  how  the  clay  was 
mixed  with  water  in  a  tank,  cleansed  from  all 
gravel  and  other  foreign  particles,  then  beaten 
with  a  bat,  and  brought  on  to  the  wheel  "  to  be 
formed  as  the  workmen  sees  good  ; "  all  processes 
which  do  not  differ  much  from  those  practised  in 
our  own  time.  The  ware  when  dry  was  ''  slipped 
or  painted."  The  orange  slip  made  the  ground 
of  the  ornaments,  while  the  outlines  were  t^^aced 
with  the  dark  red  slip,  studded  over  with  small 
white  dots.  In  some  instances,  broad  stripes  of 
red  and  yellow,  while  still  wet,  were  mixed  together 
with  a  wire  brush,  which  acted  like  the  comb  used 
for  marbling  paper  or  graining  wood.  Manganese 
appears  to  have  been  the  only  metallic  oxide 
employed ;  it  was  mixed  with  lead,  and  **  called 
magnus  by  the  workmen."  It  produced  the  motley 
colour.  As  a  rule  the  glaze  consisted  of  the  lead 
ore  (sulphuret  of  lead)  from  the  Derbyshire  mines, 
in  its  native  state.  When  a  higher  gloss  was 
required,  lead  calcined  into  powder  was  dusted 
over  the  pieces. 

The  peculiar   way  of  reckoning  the  ware  ends 


SLIP-DECORATED     WARE.  63 

the  description.  A  unit  is  said  to  have  been 
represented  by  a  dozen  small  pieces,  and  that 
unit  served  as  a  basis  of  reckoning  for  all  the 
rest.  For  instance,  a  dish  might  have  been  worth 
a  dozen  ;  a  very  large  dish  counted  for  two  dozens  ; 
of  bowls,  jugs,  cups,  and  other  articles  of  middle 
sizes,  it  required  two,  three,  or  four  to  make  a 
dozen,  and  so  on  for  all.  In  that  way  the  potter 
knew  at  once  the  value  of  the  contents  of  his 
oven  by  the  number  of  dozens  put  in,  while  the 
workman  could  easily  calculate  his  wages  by  the 
number  of  dozens  he  made  in  the  week.  Besides, 
in  the  event  of  any  alteration  in  the  prices  of  the 
ware  having  to  be  made,  the  unit  alone  had  to 
be  altered,  and  the  scale  was  modified  in  all  its 
items.  So  convenient  was  this  mode  of  reckoning 
that,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  it  has  been  kept 
up  to  this  day  in  many  manufactories,  both  in 
England  and  on  the  Continent. 

Among  the  Slip-decorated  pieces  which  have 
come  down  to  us,  we  often  find  replicas,  the 
shapes  being  neither  numerous  nor  varied.  The 
potter  keeps  to  a  few  simple  types,  all  Geometrical 
in  their  outlines  ;  but  these  he  endlessly  varies  by 
decoration  painted  on  the  surface,  departing  in 
that  manner  from  the  taste  of  his  predecessors, 
who,  still  under  the  influence  of  Gothic  art, 
affected  to  indulge  in  modelling  natural  forms : 
the  representation  of  a  man,  or  of  some  heraldic 
animal.       If  we   find   little   variety   in   the    shapes 


64  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

of  this  particular  ware,  it  may  be  accounted 
for  by  the  simpHcity  of  the  tools  employed, 
with  which  nothing  more  complicated  could 
have  been  made,  and  also  by  the  destination  of 
the  pieces,  which  were  all  intended  for  mere 
domestic  purposes ;  and  even  such  exceptional 
productions  as  the  workman  destined  for  a  hand- 
some present,  were  only  made  finer  and  richer 
by  an    additional  display  of  slip-painting. 

We  shall  now  mention  briefly  the  different 
descriptions  of  earthen  utensils  most  in  use  at 
that  time ;  there  were  :  the  Dish,  which  we  still 
find  in  large  numbers,  and  in  every  variety  of 
size  and  ornamentation.  The  Tyg,  a  tall  cup,  the 
simple  outline  of  which  was  enriched  by  an  un- 
limited number  of  handles,  always  diversified  by 
the  fancy  of  the  maker.  The  PiggiUy  often  finely 
decorated  ;  this  is  a  small  and  shallow  vessel,  pro- 
vided with  a  long  handle  at  one  side  for  the  purpose 
of  ladling  out  the  liquor  brewed  in  the  tyg.  The 
Candlestick  (Fig.  i6),  found  most  frequently  in 
the  south  of  England,  and  often  adorned,  like  the 
tyg,  with  numerous  handles.  The  Cradle;  these, 
on  the  contrary,  being  almost  peculiar  to  the 
Midland  counties,  are  seldom  found  elsewhere. 
The  Jug,  including  such  fanciful  pieces  as  Bears 
and  Owls,  and  also  the  Puzzle  Jugs,  on  which 
the  number  and  position  of  the  nozzles  show 
innumerable  varieties  of  combinations.  If  we 
add    to    these    a    few    specimens   of  very   scarce 


Flu.    16.      Slip-Decorateu   Candlestick— British    Museum. 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  65 

pieces,  like  Nests  of  Cups,  composed  of  four  or 
six  small  vases,  the  handles  of  which  are  entwined 
together ;  a  sort  of  perforated  stand  for  boiled 
eggs,  tea-pots  and  caddies;  the  money-boxes  of 
three  tiers,  on  the  top  of  which  is  represented 
the  allegory  of  the  hen  and  chickens,  we  shall 
have  exhausted  the  list  of  the  shapes  upon  which 
the  old  English  Slip  Potter  displays  his  ingenuity. 
We  shall  now  return  to  those  productions  so 
characteristic  of  the  art  of  the  old  English 
Potter,  the  Tygs,  which  well  deserve  a  special 
notice  and  a  few  words  of  description.  An 
indefinite  number  of  handles  applied  to  a  large 
cup  of  coarse  clay  distinguishes,  as  we  have 
just  said,  the  Tyg  from  other  vessels  of  early 
times.  Drinking  cups  furnished  in  that  manner 
were  manufactured  at  Wrotham,  and  in  several 
other  places  in  England,  but  the  term  Tyg  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  used  out  of  the  Stafford- 
shire Potteries  district.  It  is  probably  a  corruption 
in  the  local  dialect  from  the  Roman  word  Tegula, 
a  **  tile ; "  a  word  which  in  Italian  has  become 
Tegola,  in  Spanish  Teja,  in  old  German  Tieghel, 
in  French  Tuile,  etc.  Bos  worth,  in  his  "Anglo- 
Saxon  Dictionary,"  gives  the  name  Tigel,  '*a  tile, 
a  brick,  anything  made  of  clay,  a  pot,  a  vessel." 
Posset  and  other  compound  drinks  were  brewed 
in  the  Tyg  at  social  gatherings.  It  stood  in 
the  middle  of  the  table,  and  each  guest  helped 
himself    to     its    contents  ;    in    its  use   it   was    not 


66 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 


unlike  the  Greek  crater,  a  capacious  vase  con- 
taining a  mixed  beverage,  out  of  which  a  slave 
filled  the  cups  all  round  ;  but  as  slaves  did  not 
wait  at  old  English  convivial  meetings,  the 
common  cup  was  provided  on  every  side  with 
convenient  handles,  in  order  that  each  guest 
could  draw  it  to  himself.  Cups  or  glasses  were 
dispensed    with,    every     one    drinking    from     the 


Fig.  17.    Various  Shapes  of  Tygs. 

pot.  A  turious  passage  in  William  of  Malmes- 
bury  says,  ''  Formerly  the  vessels  were  regularly 
divided  for  to  prevent  quarrels.  King  Edward 
commanded  the  drinking  vessels  to  be  made  with 
knobs  in  the  inside  at  certain  distance  from  each 
other,  and  decreted  that  no  person,  under  a 
certain    penalty,    should    either    himself    drink   or 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  67 

compel    another    to    drink    at   one   draught   more 
than  from  one  of  these  knobs  to  the  other." 

The  earliest  Tygs  were  provided  with  only 
two  handles  placed  closely  together,  so  that  two 
friends  sitting  on  the  same  bench  had  each  one 
side  to  drink  from.  The  shapes  were  first  of 
all  straight  and  narrow,  and  the  decoration 
consisted   of  applied   pieces  of  light-coloured  clay, 


Fig.  18.    Tyg— Mr.  H.  Willett's  Coll. 


Stamped  in  separate  moulds  ;  subsequently  they 
became  shorter  and  more  open  at  the  mouth, 
and  slip,  poured  on  the  surface  in  fine  traceries, 
was  alone  used  (Fig.    17). 

The  number  of  handles  was  sometimes  eight, 
and  each  was  double  or  triple  in  its  height 
(Fig.  18);  the  shape  sometimes  concealed  a 
curious    contrivance    like    a   whisde   or   a   puzzle. 


68 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 


AH  the  applied  parts  were  made  by  hand  with 
twisted  and  crumpled  bits  of  clay,  much  in  the 
same  fashion  as  those  to  be  seen  on  the  old 
British  glass  found  in  the  barrows  ;  there  is  the 
same  disposition  and  the  same  treatment.  A 
Tyg  bears  a  striking  likeness  to  an  Anglo-Saxon 
drinking  cup. 

We  have  given  in  our  first  edition  a  Tyg 
inscribed  ''Mary  Shijilbottom,*  1705."  It  is  one 
of  the  last  period  ;  the  four  rudimental  handles 
have  no  longer  the  same  importance  as  in  the 
early  specimens.  The  potter  who  spelt  in  this 
way  the  old  name  of  Shufflebottom  was  certainly 
not  a  scholar,  but  considering  the  state  of 
education  at  that  time,  we  may  be  astonished 
that  the  posset  pot  maker  of  Staffordshire 
could  even  write  at  all.  We  may  notice  that 
most  of  the  inscribed  drinking  cups  were 
presented  to  ladies.  We  should  on  that  account 
say  that  these  Tygs  were  more  an  object  of 
adornment  for  the  shelves  of  the  housewife  than 
for  utility,  and  were  only  taken  down  on  very 
special  occasions.  That  is  perhaps  why  so  many 
have  been  preserved  to  us,  which  otherwise 
would  have  disappeared  like  pieces  in  common 
use,  now  become  so  scarce ;  handed  down  from 
father  to  son  as  a  sort  of  heirloom,  they  have 
thus   escaped   destruction. 

Tygs   disappeared   completely    when   the  use  of 
earthenware   became   more   general,    and   mugs  or 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  69 

Other  vessels  were  manufactured  in  bulk  for  the 
table.  The  intercourse,  created  by  the  increase 
of  trade,  between  the  people  of  Staffordshire 
and  those  of  the  neighbouring  counties,  drove 
the  local  custom  away.  Loving  cups,  that  is, 
large  cups  having  one  handle  on  each  side, 
were  still  made  in  tortoiseshell  or  salt-glaze  ware, 
and  upon  them  the  workman  displayed  his 
greatest  skill  ;  but  as  early  as  the  beginning  of 
the  1 8th  century  he  abandoned  the  numberless 
combinations  of  handles  which  he  had  been  so 
proud  of  setting  round  his  favourite  pieces.  The 
custom  of  every  guest  drinking  an  honoured 
toast  out  of  the  same  cup  did  not  pass  away 
altogether,  but  the  vessel  was  no  longer  made 
in  a  style  recalling  that  especial  purpose.  A 
posset  pot  in  our  collection  bears  the  inscrip- 
tion, '*  The  best  is  not  too  good,''  written  round 
the  top  in  the  usual  black  slip  letters,  studded 
over  with  yellow  dots,  and  underneath  are  two 
initials,  "  H.  L.,"  with  the  date  "  1714."  We 
are  in  doubt  as  to  the  true  meaning  of  the 
motto.  Was  it  that,  even  at  that  date,  the 
delicate  and  refined  Elers  ware  was  still  so 
litde  known  that  this  Posset  Pot,  with  its  rough 
decoration  of  slip,  was  considered  as  one  of  the 
best  possible  works  in  clay  1  We  prefer  suppos- 
ing that  it  only  alluded  to  the  quality  of  the 
mixtures   brewed   in   it. 

As    through    their    works    the    names    of    the 
7 


70  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

greater  men  in  art  have  come  down  to  posterity, 
so  the  few  works  of  the  old  Staffordshire 
Potters  which  have  escaped  destruction  have 
saved  from  oblivion  the  names  of  several  of 
those  modest  artists.  Why  should  we  not  call 
them  artists  ?  In  our  own  estimation  they  well 
deserve  that  name,  if  we  consider  how  un- 
propitious  to  their  development  was  the  low 
condition  in  which  they  moved.  Some  excuse 
may  be  found  for  the  roughness  of  their  drawing 
in  the  fact  that  the  taste  for  fine  art  was  only 
just  beginning  to  dawn  upon  England,  and  good 
examples  were  altogether  unknown  to  them  ;  it 
is  to  their  credit  that,  labouring  under  such 
adverse  circumstances,  they  energetically  en- 
deavoured to  raise  themselves  above  the  common 
level.  We  must  also  take  into  account,  not 
only  their  insufficient  education,  but  also  the 
simple  wants  their  industry  was  called  upon  to 
supply,  Staffordshire  was  then  far  from  being 
a  wealthy  county ;  what  need  was  there  for  a 
more  refined  ware  ?  The  agriculturists  and  small 
tradesmen  who  sparsely  populated  the  district 
would  not  readily  have  chosen  goods  made 
more  expensive  by  mere  workmanship.  They 
were  satisfied  with  the  common  crocks,  and  the 
craving  for  the  possession  of  any  articles  of 
luxury  was  not  yet  born  in  so  primitive  a  com- 
munity. The  few  specimens  upon  which  the 
potter    tried     to    outdo    his    ordinary    work  were 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  71 

those  he  perfected  for  the  gratification  of  his 
own  pride,  or  as  presents  to  some  friend  or 
patron,  to  whom  he  desired  to  offer  an  un- 
common sample  of  his  skill,  but  he  did  not 
consider  them  as  articles  of  his  current  trade. 
Those  belonging  to  that  exceptional  class  all 
bear  witness  to  that  feeling ;  they  are  inscribed, 
"  The  best  is  not  too  good  for  you!'  "  This 
cup  I  made  for  you   and  so  no   more^'  etc. 


Fic  19.    Owl  Jug,  Makbi^d  Waks— Mk.  H-  Willett's  Coli.. 

As  to  the  common  ware,  it  was  decorated 
with  marbling.  While  the  ground  was  still  in 
the  wet  state,  lines  of  brown  slip  were  poured 
upon  the  yellow  clay,  and  then  with  a  many- 
pointed   tool,    made   of  wire  or  leather,  like  those 


72  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

used  by  the  wood  grainer,  they  were  combed 
down  to  imitate  the  veining  of  marble,  and  so 
an  unlimited  variety  of  effects  was  easily  obtain- 
able (Fig  19).  An  excavation  seldom  takes  place 
at  Hanley  or  Burslem  without  bringing  to  the 
surface  heaps  of  fragments  of  this  ware,  but 
complete  pieces  are  getting  very  scarce,  and  are, 
indeed,  almost  unobtainable  ;  nearly  all  specimens 
now  preserved  by  collectors  have  been  dug  out 
of  the  ground  where  they  had  been  thrown 
away  as  imperfect  by  the  maker.  Half  a 
century  ago  ware  of  this  kind  was  still  com- 
monly used  by  poor  people,  but  it  has  now 
completely   disappeared. 

In  the  list  of  names  preserved  to  us,  that  of 
Thomas  Toft  stands  first.  He  was  of  an  old 
Catholic  family,  which  has  still  many  branches 
in  the  Potteries.  One  of  his  descendants  worked 
for  Josiah  Wedgwood  towards  the  close  of  the 
last  century,  and  had  his  medallion  made  at 
the  works  at  an  advanced  age.  The  name  of 
Toft  is  still  common  in  Holland,  and  M.  Thooft 
is  now  the  head  of  one  of  the  present  manu- 
factories of  Delft ;  perhaps  a  distant  connection 
could  be  traced  between  the  Dutch  and  the 
Staffordshire  potter.  From  about  1660,  Thomas 
Toft  added  to  the  manufacture  of  usual  ware 
the  making  of  those  huge  platters,  the  rims  of 
which  are  ornamented  with  a  trellis-work  of 
orange   and   brown   slip,   and    the   centre   adorned 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  72> 

with  a  conventional  flower,  a  curious  figure,  a 
lion,  or  an  eagle.  No  doubt  he  never  thought 
of  deriving  his  inspiration  from  nature,  but  rather 
from  such  bits  of  heraldry,  coins,  or  common 
effigies  of  Royal  personages  as  might  have 
come  under  his  notice.  He  is  generally  spoken 
of  as  a  potter  of  Burslem,  but  we  know  that 
he  worked  in  a  lane  between  Shelton  and  New- 
castle-under-Lyme ;  one  of  his  dishes  has  been 
seen  at  a  cottage  at  Hanley,  bearing,  besides 
his  name  written  in  slip  on  the  face,  this 
inscription  scratched  in  at  the  back,  "  T/iomas 
Toft,  Tinker's  C lough. — /  made  it — 166.  ."  The 
place  still  bears  the  same  name  in  our  day. 
He  was  probably  the  first  to  attempt  such  an 
ambitious  style  as  the  representation  of  human 
figures ;  many  admirers  and  plagiarists  emulated 
him  almost  immediately.  Whatever  the  maker's 
name  may  have  been,  most  of  these  dishes  seem 
to  have  been  reproductions,  or  at  least  imitations, 
of  one  master. 

Simeon  Shaw  (Chemistry  of  Pottery)  attributes 
to  Thomas  Toft  the  introduction  of  an  "  alumi- 
nous shale  or  fire-brick  clay,"  a  somewhat  obscure 
statement  ;  but  the  enumeration  Shaw  gives  of 
the  different  improvements  by  Toffs  contem- 
poraries shows  that  the.  worthy  historian  of  the 
Staffordshire  Potteries  is  not  always  to  be  relied 
upon.  His  information  was  negligently  gathered, 
and    appears    to    be   based   mainly   on    unreliable 


74  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

hearsay.  In  many  cases  we  know  for  certain 
that  he  has  been  misinformed,  and  we  are 
warranted  therefore  in  suspecting  that  most  of 
his  assertions  stand  in  need  of  corroboration. 
Without  attempting  to  give  a  complete  list  of 
all  the  dishes  signed  by  Thomas  Toft,  preserved 
in  the  National  Museum  and  private  collections, 
we  may,  however,  enumerate  the  following  pieces, 
all  adorned  on  the  rim  with  the  usual  trellis-work, 
and  inscribed  with  the  name  in  full. 

Museum   of  Practical  Geology — A   Crowned   Lion. 
South   Kensington   Museum — A    Mermaid. 

„  „  „      — The  Lion  and  Unicorn. 

Bateman   Museum. — Half  length  figure  of  Charles  IL 
Collection^  T.  Hulmes — Conventional   Flower. 

„         H.  T.  Davenport — Duke  of  York. 

„  „         — Double-headed  Eagle. 

„         A.  H.  Church— A  Pelican. 

„  L.  Solon — A  Cavalier  Drinking  a  Toast. 

To  this  list  can  be  added  a  few  other  dishes 
which  have  passed  into  various  hands  and  which 
we  have  lost  sight  of.  He  seldom  signed  any 
cups  or  tygs  ;  yet  a  four-handled  pot,  bearing  his 
name,  is  preserved  in  the  York  Museum. 

The  subjects  represented  were  generally  such 
as  appealed  to  the  imagination.  Sometimes  the 
decoration  consisted  of  marvellous  and  hyperbolical 
flowers  or  monstrous  animals,  though  more  fre- 
quently preference  was  given  to  the  figures  of 
the   King  and  his  Queen,  personages  who  in  the 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  75 

minds  of  the  simple  inhabitants  of  the  outlandish 
districts  were  looked  upon  as  almost  supernatural. 
In  the  same  manner  as  the  Italian  artist  exerted 
his  fancy  in  designing  the  mythological  gods,  the 
angels,  or  the  saints,  the  potter  of  Staffordshire 
tried  to  represent  royalty,  of  which  he  formed  a 
conception  quite  as  confused  and  conventional.  It 
would  certainly  be  difficult  to  be  less  realistic  than 
Thomas  Toft  has  been  in  the  treatment  of  his 
royal  groups. 

The  name  of  Ralph  Toft  occurs  on  several 
dishes  of  similar  make.  One  of  them,  dated 
1677,  has  a  figure  of  a  soldier  holding  a  sword 
in  each  hand,  with  a  crowned  head  on  a  medallion 
right  and  left  of  the  principal  subject.  We  find 
this  crowned  head  very  often  repeated  ;  we  have 
it  on  a  large  dish,  where  in  an  arrangement  with 
four  fieurs-de-lys,  it  forms  an  ornamental  rosette  ; 
again  it  appears  on  another  specimen  in  our  own 
collection  on  each  side  of  the  half-length  figure 
of  a  queen,  inscribed  Ralph  oft,  the  T  having 
evidently  been  omitted  by  mistake.  In  the 
Salford  Museum  a  Ralph  Toft  dish  has,  with 
the   name,    the   date    1676. 

John  Wright y  170J,  from  a  dish  in  the  Wedg- 
wood Institute,  Burslem.  W.  Rich,  iyo2,  (Shaw). 
T  Johnson,  16^4,  in  the  collection  of  the  late 
Rev.   W.    Sibthorpe. 

William  Sans  is  mentioned  by  Chaffers  as 
having   also   made   dishes   of  similar   character. 


7^  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

William  Taylor,  from  a  dish  in  the  Bateman 
Museum,  with  two  full-length  figures  in  the  cos- 
tume of  the  time  of  the  Stuarts,  and  from  another 
in  our  own  possession. 

George  Taylor,  with  also  two  full-length  figures. 

Joseph  Glass,  of  Hanley,  whose  manufactory  was 
in  existence  in  1710,  and  who  must  have  produced 
a  very  fine  ware  of  the  sort,  if  we  may  judge 
from  the  beautiful  fragments  dug  up  at  the  place 


Fig.  ao.    Posset  Pot. 


only  a  few  years  ago.  One  of  his  works  is  in 
the  collection  of  the  Rev.  T.  Staniforth  (Fig.  20)  ; 
it  is  a  four-handled  tyg,  bearing  Glass  s  name,  and 
the  usual  slip  designs  in  brown  on  a  buff  ground. 
Mr.  H.  Griffiths,  of  Brighton,  has  a  cradle 
inscribed  Joseph  Glass,  and  we  should  also 
ascribe    to    him    a    remarkably    large    cradle,    of 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 


n 


the  same  style,  inscribed  William  Smith  on  one 
side  and  Martha  Smith  on  the  other ;  at  the 
end  a  crowned  effigy  surmounts  the  date,  1700 
(Fig.  21). 

By  the  number  still  to  be  found  in  Stafford- 
shire, where  these  cradles  were  made,  either  of 
Slip-decorated  ware.  Salt-glaze,  or  Cream-colour, 
we  may  infer  that  presents  of  this  sort  were  a 
tradition   peculiar  to    the   district. 


Fig.  31.    Slip-okcokatsd  Cradle.    Coli>  L.  S. 


Pottery  is  not  only  associated  with  the  material 
necessities  of  man,  but  also  with  his  feelings  and 
affections,  and  has  from  the  most  ancient  times 
been  used  to  commemorate  some  momentous 
event  in  his  career.  An  early  British  urn  speaks 
to  us  of  death  and  mysterious  burial  rites  ;  a  cradle 
of  brown  clay  recalls  the  christening  festivities  in 


7  8  SLIP-DECORATED     WARE. 

families  of  the  Midland  counties  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  The  potter  has  always  taken  a  pleasure 
in  putting  his  best  work  upon  presents  intended 
for  his  friends.  In '  France,  on  the  morning 
that  followed  the  wedding,  an  dcuelky  or  nicely 
decorated  covered  bowl  with  two  handles,  was 
always  offered  by  the  guests  to  the  married 
couple.  In  England,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
birth  of  a  first  child,  a  cradle  made  of  clay  or 
precious  material  was  presented  to  the  parents ; 
the  custom  has  not  died  out  altogether,  for  on 
a  similar  occurrence  such  a  testimonial  is  pre- 
sented by  subscription  to  a  man  holding  a 
public  office.  These  earthenware  cradles  were 
worked  up  in  the  plainest  fashion ;  no  moulds 
or  models  were  required,  and  any  workman 
could  make ,  them.  Some  flattened  bats  joined 
together  sufficed  for  the  shape,  and  knobs,  rolled 
in  the  hands,  were  stuck  on  every  corner  by 
way  of  decoration.  Some  of  them  were  after- 
wards ornamented  with  an  inscription  or  a  pattern 
of  coloured  slip. 

Another  cradle  in  our  possession  has  the  name 
of  Ralph  Simpson,  and  the  same  name  occurs 
upon  a  slip  dish,  with  the  figures  of  William 
and  Mary.  Not  fewer  than  three  Simpsons 
figure  in  the  list  of  potters  established  at 
Burslem  in  1710.  On  this  list,  drawn  up  by 
Josiah  Wedgwood,  and  given  by  Miss  Meteyard, 
many    other    potters    of    the    time   are   recorded, 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  79 

but  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  identify  their 
respective  productions. 

With  a  few  exceptions,  seldom  do  we  find  any 
name  on  a  piece,  and  if  we  do  find  one  it 
generally  refers  to  the  person  to  whom  it  was 
dedicated,  especially  in  the  cases  of  tygs,  cradles, 
jugs,  etc. 

We  feel  inclined  to  suppose  that  if  Thomas 
Toft  repeated  so  many  times  his  bold  signature 
on  his  remarkable  dishes,  he  did  it  with 
the  view  of  presenting  them  to  his  best 
customers  and  patrons,  not  only  as  grateful 
testimonials  for  past  favours,  but  also  as  an 
advertisement  likely  to  bring  further  orders  by 
the  admiration  they  could  not  fail  to  excite. 
Thus,  kept  in  some  country  dealer's  window  as 
the  most  conspicuous  object  in  the  display,  or 
perhaps  set  on  the  dresser  of  the  best  room  of 
the  house,  they  remained  for  long  years,  becom- 
ing heirlooms  in  the  family,  until  one  day, 
neglected  by  their  possessors,  they  fell  into  the 
hands   of  the   collector. 

The  huge  platters  Thomas  Toft  has  signed 
are  so  numerous  that  the  generic  name  of  Toft 
dishes  has  been  accepted  for  all  the  Slip- 
decorated  ones  made  in  his  time.  We  shall 
describe  in  a  few  words  one  of  the  dishes  which 
may  be  considered  as  being  of  the  best  manner. 
With  some  slight  variation,  this  description  may 
be   applied   to   all   the   others.     The   body   of  the 


8o 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 


dish  is  of  coarse  marl,  washed  on  the  inside 
with  a  coat  of  fine  yellow  clay :  it  is  highly 
fired,  very  heavy  and  resistant.  The  outline  of 
the  subject  is  traced  with  brown  slip  punctuated 
with  white  dots  ;  the  interspaces  are  filled  in 
with  orange  colour ;  in  the  middle  stand  a 
quaint  figure,  or  a  curious  animal  ;  three  flowers, 
a  distant  reminiscence  of  fleurs-de-lys,  and  a 
sort  of  uncouth  garland  completes  the  subject ; 
on  the  broad  rim,  brown  and  orange  slips  have 
been  trailed  to  form  a  close  trellis-work.  The 
whole  is  very  effective,  and  if  we  consider  the 
decoration  only  as  a  means  of  bringing  out  the 
contrast  of  colours,  we  may  pass  over  the  oddity 
of  its  execution.  We  have  heard  critics  dismiss 
such  pieces  in  a  few  words,  to  the  effect  that 
they  are  no  better  than  the  barbarous  works  of 
New  Zealanders  ;  but  why  this  should  not  be 
taken  as  a  compliment  instead  of  condemnation 
we  fail  to  perceive.  We  do  not  in  any  way 
despise  the  carvings  of  the  clubs  and  canoe 
heads  of  the  savage  ;  they  exhibit  a  real  under- 
standing of  what  can  make  them  rich  and 
beautiful,  display  a  fanciful  combination  of  lines 
and  proportions  that  owes  nothing  to  servile 
imitation,  and  strikingly  shows  what  are  the 
earliest  and  most  natural  notions  of  decoration 
that  can  bud  out  from  the  untutored  fancy  of 
a  human  being.  The  archaic  creations  of  the 
early     Etruscans    and     Greeks    contain     in     their 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  8 1 

roughness  all  the  germs  of  what  was  one  day 
to  be  the  art  of  Praxiteles  and  Phidias,  and 
this  none  the  less  for  their  being  in  some 
respects  akin  to  the  works  of  some  Polynesian 
savages.  Shall  we  pass  an  irrevocable  sentence 
upon  the  old  Slip  Potter  on  account  of  his 
imperfections  .'*  At  least  his  trials  forcibly  tell 
us  about  obsolete  tastes  and  forgotten  customs  ; 
they  make  us  acquainted  with  the  state  of 
artistic  education  in  his  times,  pottery  in  all 
ages  reflecting  the  condition  of  every  other 
branch  of  art ;  we  see  how  meritorious  these 
old  workmen  were  in  following  up  unremittingly 
emendations  and  improvements,  and  how  a 
genuine  and  even  refined  style  was  to  be  the 
result   of  their    primitive   and    uncouth    labours. 

To  the  slip  dish  made  to  pattern  succeeded 
another  sort  of  production  exhibiting  a  greater 
freedom  in  the  imagination  of  the  primitive 
artist.  In  some  cases  his  humoristic  turn  of 
mind  would  burst  out  into  some  rough  caricature, 
somewhat  childish  in  execution.  You  are  wel- 
come to  laugh  at  the  grotesque  performance  of 
the  jolly  and  funny  old  potter ;  the  dish  was 
never  intended  for  aught  but  to  induce  a  gentle 
merriment.  Do  not  forget  that  the  maker  never 
anticipated  that  he  was  working  for  you  or  me, 
the  sensitive  and  squeamish  children  of  a  refined 
century,  and  that  he  might  one  day  have  to 
undergo    our    criticism.     The    noble    and   solemn 


82  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

Greek  interred  his  vases  in  stately  tombs,  fore- 
seeing that  in  after  ages  they  would  come  out, 
proclaiming  the  elevation  of  his  thoughts  and  the 
splendour  of  his  art.  The  rough  workman  of 
Staffordshire  did  his  work  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment ;  it  was  a  morning's  joke,  destined  to 
be   forgotten   by   the   evening. 

We  have  already  seen  how  few  were  the 
means,  patterns,  and  processes,  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Slip  Potter  when  he  wanted  to  complete 
a  piece  that  would  surpass  all  his  daily  pro- 
ductions. The  broad  and  quaint  slip  letters, 
acquiring  a  peculiar  shape  of  their  own  by  the 
way  in  which  they  were  poured  on,  often  came 
in  as  the  main  feature  of  decoration,  and  we 
know  of  many  examples  where  they  make  a 
graceful  ornament  merely  by  the  variety  of 
their  lines.  Sometimes  they  were  accompanied 
by  huge  Elizabethan  flowers,  very  conventional  in 
their  shape,  and  seldom  varied  in  their  arrange- 
ment ;  whether  brown  upon  yellow,  or  light  upon 
the  dark  colour,  they  contrast  boldly  with  the 
ground,  and  frequently  the  same  piece  offers  both 
combinations. 

Besides  the  decoration  with  slip  poured  on  the 
surface,  another  process  often  resorted  to  is  the 
blending  together  of  red  and  yellow  slip,  in 
imitation  of  marble ;  it  is  seen  on  the  owl-jugs, 
and  on  some  curious  puzzle  jugs  ;  in  fewer 
instances,    the     upper     coat     of    light    clay     was 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  S^ 

scratched  so  as  to  show  the  dark  ground,  in 
the  same  manner  as  the  Italian  Sgrafiato  (Fig. 
22). 

Additional     portions    modelled    by    hand    were 
sometimes    applied.      In    the    Hanley    Museum   is 


Fio.  aa.    Sgrafiato  Jug— Nottingham  Musxum. 

a  jug  (Fig.  23),  dated  1693,  which  has  a  figure 
of  Plenty  modelled  in  front;  some  thin  strips  of 
clay  were  also  laid  on  and  deeply  notched  with  a. 
tool  ;  they  have  a  brilliant  effect  under  the  glaze, 
and  constitute  another  means  of  decoration  also 
frequently  used. 

Jugs  decorated  with  slip  are  seldom  met  with  ; 
not  that  they  were  rarely  made,  but  probably 
because,   being    of    a    more   handy   shape    than  a 


§4  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

tyg  or  an  ornamental  dish,  they  shared  the 
fate  of  all  common  crockery  in  use,  and  were 
soon  destroyed.  Not  much  value  seems  ever 
to  have  been  put  upon  such  jugs,  or  mugs 
of  the  same  description ;  they  are  never  found 
mounted  with   silver  or  pewter,   like   those   made 


Fig.  23.    Slip-decorated  Jug— Hanlev  Museum. 

of  Stone-ware  in  the  South  of  England,  nor  do 
we  ever  see  them  mentioned  in  any  will  or  other 
documents.  However  carefully  finished  might 
have  been  a  special  piece  of  this  sort,  it  was 
always  considered  as  one  of  the  common  produc- 
tions of  the  place. 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  85 

In  no  case  do  we  see  any  moulded  parts 
side  by  side  with  the  works  of  the  oldest  Slip 
potters  of  Staffordshire,  as  we  observe  on  the 
slip  pieces  of  southern  origin.  They  borrowed 
little  indeed  from  the  rest  of  the  world ;  the 
absence  of  oxide  of  copper  upon  their  early 
pieces,  when  we  know  that  in  other  countries 
that  material  had  been  used  for  centuries,  would 
tend  to  prove  that  these  worthies  confined  them- 
selves to  their  own  discoveries.  The  pigments 
were  very  limited,  being  confined  to  the  white, 
yellow,  red,  and  orange  slips.  If. we  occasionally 
notice  a  grey  slip  on  the  buff  ground,  it  is  due 
to  the  discolouration  of  the  orange,  through  an 
excess  of  smoke  in  the  oven. 

The  traditional  manner  of  employing  the  slips 
never  varied,  and  could  not  lead  to  many  im- 
provements. The  flowers  and  letters  were  freely 
poured  on  the  surface,  without  any  tracing  to 
guide  the  hand ;  and  the  lines  thus  produced 
resulted  in  a  design  which  could  never  show 
much  delicacy  or  elaboration  of  treatment ;  yet 
when  stamping  and  casting  began  to  be  intro- 
duced, the  slip-decorator  found  out  a  way  of 
availing  himself  of  some  of  the  new-fangled 
methods  employed  by  the  more  spirited  potters 
working  contemporaneously  with  him.  Then  we 
begin  to  see  dishes,  the  intended  decoration  of 
which    had    been     incised     and     carved     on     the 

block     upon    which    they   were   pressed ;    thus   all 
8 


86  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

the  outlines  stood  out  in  relief  on  the  bat  of 
clay  which  was  formed  into  a  platter,  and  a 
space  was  reserved  between  the  two  ridges,  leav- 
ing a  hollow  to  be  filled  in  by  slips  of  divers 
colours.  On  these  examples  the  off-hand  execu- 
tion has  given  place  to  a  process  which  provides 
against  any  mistake  being  made  in  the  pouring 
out  of  the  colour  through  a  quill.  Upon  such 
a  form  many  pieces  of  the  same  pattern  could 
be  pressed,  and  the  work  of  the  decorator 
consisted  merely  in  filling  in  with  the  two 
coloured  slips  the  cavities  prepared  to  receive 
them,  a  process  which,  by  the  bye,  has  some 
analogy  to  the  "cloisonne"  enamelling  on  cop- 
per. The  designs  so  treated  are  much  more 
complicated  than  those  seen  on  the  usual  Slip 
dishes.  In  the  first  edition  of  this  work  we 
have  etched  two  dishes  decorated  by  this 
process.  One  of  them  has  again  royalty  for  its 
subject.  A  portrait  of  a  king,  George  I.  or 
George  II.,  occupies  the  centre,  and  is  surrounded 
with  a  deer  and  two  birds,  emblematic  of 
hunting  being  one  of  the  royal  prerogatives. 
The  head  is  no  longer  traced  with  the  con- 
ventional scrolls  which  stand  for  the  features  of 
T,  Toffs  kings,  but  is  evidently  copied  from 
some  good  portrait  or  engraving.  This  is 
certainly  ♦  a  step  in  advance,  but  the  picture 
adds  little  to  the  real  merit  of  the  work,  which 
consists  in  the  richness  of  the  glaze  and  the  deep 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  87 

tone  of  the  various  slips.  The  other  may  be 
one  of  the  sarcastic  presents  customarily  sent  on 
St.  Valentine's  day.  A  neighbour's  wife,  or  per- 
haps his  own,  had  shown  herself  somewhat 
liable  to  the  white  sin  of  curiosity  or  interference, 
and  to  her  the  anonymous  potter  sends  this 
cutting  allegory.  In  the  dish  are  depicted  Lot's 
wife,  two  angels  blowing  trumpets,  •  and  the 
pillar  of  salt ;  and  for  fear  that  the  intention 
should  not  be  forcibly  enough  expressed,  an 
inscription  is  added,  ''Remember  Lot's  Wife,'' 
with  the  date,  **  1727,"  to  show  that  it  was 
intended  to  relate  to  some  particular  occurrence. 
Scriptural  jokes  were  freely  indulged  in  between 
the  period  succeeding  the  Reformation  and  the 
appearance  of  Methodism,  which  altered  so  much 
the  manners  of  the  people  in  the  Potteries 
district. 

In  Mr.  Willett's  collection  is  a  very  remark- 
able one,  illustrating  the  popular  saying,  **  A 
bird  in  the  hand  is  worth  two  in  the  bushy 
Notches  are,  as  a  rule,  to  be  noticed  on  the 
edges  of  these  dishes  ;  they  answered  a  double 
purpose,  they  were  ornamental,  and  prevented 
the  dish,  which  was  fired  downwards,  from 
sticking  to  the  bats  upon  which  it  rested.  In 
any  case  the  glazing  remains  the  same  ;  it  is  the 
rich  and  lustrous  Galena  unsparingly  dusted  on, 
which,  liquefied  by  the  firing,  spreads  upon  the 
piece,  if   we    may  say  so,  like  golden  treacle.     In 


88  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

France  the  same  mater'al  was  used  under  the 
name  of  Alquifou,  Though  its  high  colouration 
forbids  its  use  to  any  depth  on  any  light  ware,  it 
becomes  unrivalled  when  it  is  intended  to  varnish 
a  clay  already  of  a  dark  colour.  Few  things, 
indeed,  can  hold  their  own  by  the  side  of  a 
mellow-toned  and  richly-glazed  slip  piece.  We 
remember  once  coming  across  an  old  Stafford- 
shire dish  exhibited  in  a  dealer's  window,  amidst 
a  host  of  very  handsome  "curios,"  porcelain  of 
all  sorts.  Oriental  silks,  and  chased  silver  and 
gold.  The  eye  that  had  rested  upon  the  uncouth 
platter  could  hardly  leave  it,  and  was  attracted  to 
it  over  and  over  again,  so  powerful  and  har- 
monious did  it  look  amongst  all  the  other 
treasures.  Need  we  say  that  we  secured,  it, 
and  were  more  proud  of  its  possession  than  if 
we  had  been  permitted  to  carry  away  the  most 
costly  of  the  objects  by  which  it  was  sur- 
rounded ? 

It  is  said  that  in  Persia  the  productions  of 
the  most  ancient  potteries,  even  though  mere 
fragments,  are  bought  by  their  admirers  at  high 
prices,  to  be  mounted  in  precious  metals  with  all 
the  skill  that  the  modern  workman  can  command. 
The  same  idea  was  carried  out  in  France  in  the 
last  century  to  enhance  the  beauty  of  antique 
Chinese  pieces.  The  coarsest  specimens  of 
'*  Celadon "  or  "  Rouge  Flambe  "  have  been  set 
by    ''  Gouttieres''   and   other  celebrated  chasers  in 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  89 

bronzes  of  the  most  refined  workmanship.  In 
England  also  this  tribute  of  admiration  has 
been  paid  by  a  few  collectors  of  great  taste  to 
some  of  the  rough  fictile  gems  of  the  past.  Not 
to  speak  of  the  time  when  the  first  stone-ware 
pots  used  to  be  elaborately  mounted  by  the 
silversmith,  we  know  of  some  instances  where 
a  similar  sort  of  setting  has  been  successfully 
attempted ;  we  regret  to  say  that  the  examples 
are  only  too  few.  The  contrast  obtained  between 
some  roughly-made  and  deeply-coloured  earthen 
utensils,  mellowed  by  age,  and  the  sharply  detailed 
and  glittering  metal-work  produces  an  amazing 
effect. 

We  have  said  that  inscriptions  are  one  of  the 
main  features  of  old  Staffordshire  decoration  ;  they 
are  not  only  interesting  in  that  respect,  but  also 
are  worthy  of  notice  by  the  humour  and  some- 
times even  the  pathos  which  they  evince.  It  is 
a  notorious  fact  that  writing  is  a  prominent  con- 
stituent of  decoration  with  nations  among  whom 
learning  has  not  yet  been  widely  spread.  From 
the  Egyptian  priests  who  committed  the  ever- 
lasting evidence  of  their  knowledge  to  the  walls 
of  palaces  and  temples  in  symbolic  figurations 
which  adepts  alone  could  decipher,  to  the  Moors 
of  Spain,  who  brought  writing  into  play  amongst 
their  intricate  arabesques,  so  as  to  make  of  it  the 
more  graceful  part  of  the  whole  tracery,  every 
nation  has  considered  inscriptions,  when  introduced 


90  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

in  their  early  artistic  productions,  architectural  or 
ceramic,  as  answering  a  twofold  purpose,  that  is 
to  say,  not  only  to  be  commemorative  of  some 
important  event,  or  memorable  date,  but  also  to 
add  more  beauty  to  the  general  ornamentation. 
But  as  the  level  of  education  rises  in  the  masses, 
in  the  same  proportion  the  letter  loses  its  orna- 
mental character,  and  its  use  becomes  neglected  and 
obsolete ;  in  fact  one  might  say  that  inscriptions 
cease  to  be  employed  as  a  means  of  decoration  at 
the  precise  time  when  everyone  is  able  to  under- 
stand them.  It  will,  we  hope,  interest  the  reader 
if  we  give  here  a  few  of  the  inscriptions  we  have 
gathered  from  old  pieces  of  Staffordshire  ware. 
In  our  own  collection  : — 

"THE   BEST   IS    NOT   TOO   GOOD,    I714," 

in    brown   slip   upon   a   two-handled    and   covered 
posset  pot. 

"  THE   GIFT    IS    SMALL 

BUT    LOVE    IS    ALL,     1 725," 

scratched  in  clay  upon  a  brown  glazed  cradle. 

"REMEMBER    LOT's    WIFE,     I727," 

upon   a   yellow   dish    decorated    with    brown    and 
red  slip. 

Several  names   on   tygs,   probably  those  of  the 
persons  to  whom  they  were  given : 

"MARGRETE   COLLEY,    1 684." 

"JOHN    HUGHES,     169O." 

"  MARY   SHIFFILBOTTOM,    I705." 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  9 1 

In  the  Museum  of  the  Somerset  Archaeological 
Society  : — 

"three  merry  boys,   1697,'* 

on  a  nest  of  cups ;  the  entwined  handles  are 
pierced,  and  allow  the  liquor  to  run  from  one  cup 
to  the  other. 

In  the  Norwich  Museum  : — 

"come  brother  shall  we  join, 
give  me  your  two  pence  here  is  mine. 

WAYMAN,     1670," 

on  a  brown  jug  decorated  with  slip. 

Mentioned     by     Mr.    W.     Bemrose     in     "  The 
Pottery   and    Porcelain   of  Derbyshire," 

"GOD   BLES   the   QUEEN   AND    PRENCE   GORGE 
DRINK   BE   MERY   &   MARY    B    B 

JOHN    MIER   MADE   THIS   CUP    1 708.^* 

In  Mr.  Geo.   T.  Robinson's  collection : — 

"  ROBART   POOL   MAD   THIS   CUP 
WITH   A  GUD   POSSET    FIL   AND   (dRINK   IT    UP,)" 

on   a  three-handled   posset   pot. 
In   the    Liverpool    Museum  : — 

"  BREAK    ME    NOT    I    PRAY    IN    YOUER    HAST 
FOR    I   TO    NONE   WILL   GIVE    DESTAST    1 65 1." 

In  the  Salisbury  Museum  : — 

GLAD   HAM 

I   G       1692." 


"  HERE   IS   THE   GEST   OF   BARLY  KORNE 
GLAD   HAM   I    THE    CILD   IS    BORN 


92  SLIP-DECORATED    WA^E. 

In  the  possession  of  Sir  Ivor  B.  Guest  (see 
Chaffers'    Marks   and    Monograms) : — 

**  COME  GOOD  WOMAN  DRINK  OF  THE  BEST 
YOU  MY  LADY  AND  ALL  THE  REST," 

Upon  a  brown  four-handled  tyg. 

In  Mr.   H.  Willett's  collection,   Brighton:— 

/^."ANN    DRAPER    THIS    CUP    I     MADE     FOR    YOU    &    SO 
NO    MORE. — ^J.     W.,     1707," 

upon   a   brown   and   yellow   posset   pot. 

**THE    RIT    GENURAL    CORNAL     FOR     THE     DROWNKEN 
REGIMENT," 

on   a   large   beer  jug. 

The  alphabet  in  square  compartments  and  the 
date,  **  May  the  2g  Day,  IT 06^'  on  a  large  posset 
pot. 

In  the  British  Museum: — 

"  REMEMBER   THY    END    TRULY," 

Upon  a  pot  of  questionable  shape. 

Specimens  of  what  we  might  call  "  speaking 
pottery  "  are  somewhat  limited  in  number,  as  the 
style  is  confined  to  presentation  pieces,  reverentially 
preserved  in  old  families.  They  were  so  difficult 
to  obtain  that  we  do  not  find  any  in  the  collec- 
tion of  Enoch  Wood,  who  had  shown  himself  so 
zealous  in  collecting  all  that  could  be  interesting 
for  the  history  of  the  old  Staffordshire  ware,  and 
yet  had  probably  been  unable  to  secure  any. 

During   the  latter   part  of  the  last  century  the 


SLIP-DECORATED    WARE.  93 

art  of  slip  was  superseded  by  more  advanced 
processes  of  decoration  ;  however,  in  the  Liverpool 
Museum  is  a  brown  puzzle  jug  bearing  a  long 
inscription,  very  neatly  poured  on,  on  which  we 
read  the  date  1828.  At  the  present  day,  in  the 
market  places  of  Norfolk,  Kent,  and  Lancashire, 
are  daily  sold  coarse  pots  and  pancheons  which 
are  streaked  here  and  there  with  lines  and  scrolls 
of  white  slip,  made  in  some  remote  country  pot 
works.  In  Switzerland  the  tradition  is  still  kept 
up,  though  it  has  lost  many  of  its  ancient  charac- 
teristics, and  the  peasant's  ware  continues  to  be 
made  pleasant  and  gaudy  by  the  use  of  different 
coloured  clays  poured  on  the  ground  in  the  same 
manner  as  of  old. 

In  Italy,  also,  a  ware  of  the  same  sort  is 
extensively  fabricated,  and  it  requires  a  very 
skilful  hand  to  dash  on  at  one  stroke,  with 
the  liquid  slip,  the  conventional  flowers  and 
animals  that  suit  the  taste  of  the  people.  A 
Milan  manufacturer  having  engaged  for  that 
special  work  a  pastry  cook,  who  was  extremely 
clever  at  embellishing  his  cakes  with  designs  in 
syrups  and  currants,  has  found  his  talents  so 
successful  when  thus  directed  to  pot  painting, 
and  his  work  meet  with  such  a  demand,  that 
he  realises  more  profit  out  of  the  extemporised 
artist  than  he  would  out  of  half-a-dozen  china 
painters. 

May    we   be   excused    if  we   show   ourselves   a 


94  SLIP-DECORATED    WARE. 

little  partial  to  the  slip  process,  considering  that 
it  is  closely  connected  with  ''Pate  sur  Pate!'  a 
process  that  we  have  practised  ourselves  for 
more  than  twenty-five  years,  and  which  is  also 
painting  in  slip  upon  the  unbaked  surface  ? 

We  shall  conclude  by  mentioning  another  sort 
of  slip-ware  also  made  now-a-days,  the  sham 
"  old  slip,"  of  which  we  have  to  confess  the 
possession  of  several  pieces,  bought  at  a  high 
figure  for  genuine  specimens.  We  wish  our 
experience  to  be  of  some  use  to  other  collectors, 
and  hope  our  readers  may  be  spared  the  dis- 
appointment of  finding  that  a  piece  bought  in 
a  lonely  cottage  from  a  respectable-looking  old 
woman,  turns  out  to  be  nothing  but  an  im- 
pudent  forgery  1     "  Forewarned,    forearmed." 


CHAPTER  IV. 


ENGLISH      DELFT 


Dutch-ware, — Its     Body     and     Glaze. — Delft    made    in 
England — Lambeth — Liverpool — Bristol — The  Staf- 
fordshire   Potteries. — English   Delft    Dishes. — 
Unsuccessful     Attempts     to    Manufacture 
Delft  in  the  Potteries. — Inscriptions. — 
English    Delft    only    made    as  an 
Imitation  of  Foreign  Ware. 


Fig.  24.    English  Delft  Dish.    William  and  Mary— Coll.  L.  S. 


ENGLISH     DE  LPT. 


ROM  Holland,  where  an  ever-Increasing 
number  of  factories  of  the  white  ware 
coated  with  stanniferous  enamel  had 
already  reached  the  highest  degree  of 
artistic  and  commercial  development,  the  process 
was  brought  into  England  about  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  It  was  the  nearest  approach 
to  the  Oriental  porcelain,  which  was  so  much 
admired,  and  so  difficult  to  obtain.  The  Dutch, 
who  imported  those  rarities  from  the  West 
Indies,  endeavoured  to  transform  into  a  plausible 
substitute  the  common  white  faience  they  were 
then  making,  and  by  decorating  it  in  blue  with 
subjects  copied  from  Chinese  pieces,  to  realise,  if 
not  the  unobtainable  transparence,  at  least  all  the 
outward  looks  of  the  Eastern  China.  They 
succeeded    in    producing    such    a    close  imitation 


98  ENGLISH   DELFT.' 

that  some  of  the  blue  and  white  Delft  dishes 
might,  at  a  distance,  deceive  the  eye  of  even  a 
connoisseur. 

The  body  is  of  a  yellowish  or  red  colour,  very 
friable  and  porous ;  carbonate  of  lime  enters 
largely  into  its  composition.  The  glaze,  a  thick 
and  opaque  enamel,  is  a  mixture  of  oxides___Q£^ 
lead  and  tin.  Its  manufacture  differed  from  all 
other  early  ware  in  this  respect,  that  it  had  to  be 
fired  twice ;  once,  to  harden  the  biscuit,  so  as  to 
allow  of  its  being  dipped  in  the  liquid  glaze,  the 
porosity  of  the  body  absorbing  the  water  while 
the  enamel  remained  on  the  surface  ;  and  then  a 
second  time,  to  vitrify  the  glaze. 

The  earliest  dated  pieces  considered  to  be 
English  Delft,  that  is  to  say  potted  in  England, 
were  probably  made  with  clay  from  Holland,  as 
we  may  infer  from  the  fact  of  their  substance 
being  very  porous,  and  easy  to  cut  into  with  a 
knife,  from  its  effervescing  with  nitric  acid,  and 
at  a  high  temperature  melting  into  a  coarse  glass. 
The  native  clays,  however,  were  soon  brought 
into  use,  and  then  we  find  the  ware  has  been 
highly  fired,  and  can  hardly  be  scratched  with 
a  sharp  point.  It  is  of  some  importance  to 
remark  that  the  list  of  all  the  British  clays 
drawn  up  by  Mr.  Maw,  and  /published  in  the 
catalogue  of  the  Jermyn  Street  Museum,  does 
not  contain  any  calcareous  clay  like  that  which 
constitutes    the    principal    elem<^nt   of  the   foreign 


ENGLISH   DELFT.  99 

Stanniferous  faience.  However,  the  ware  was 
made  in  England  with  the  local  materials,  only 
the  biscuit  being  dense  instead  of  spongy  does 
not  when  dipped  retain  a  sufficiently  thick  coat- 
ing of  enamel,  and  its  red  colour  shows  through, 
giving  the  ware  that  rosy  tint  so  often  observed 
by  collectors ;  crazing  is  generally  seen  on  the 
surface,  through  want  of  affinity  between  body 
and  glaze.  Dutch  pieces,  on  the  contrary,  are 
as  a  rule  free  from  this  defect.  The  English 
potter  was  so  well  aware  of  this  shortcoming 
that  the  early  dishes  were  coated  only  on  the 
front  side,  the  back  being  glazed  with  the  usual 
lead  glaze,  and  sometimes  mottled  with  ordinary 
tortoiseshell  colours.  Whenever  the  style  of 
painting,  which  otherwise  is  the  safest  guide  for 
identification,  appears  doubtful,  this  should  be 
sufficient  to  indicate  the  origin  of  a  piece. 
Dutch  dishes  may  be  found  similar  in  design, 
but  they  are  invariably  enamelled  on  both  sides; 
as  to  the  few  dishes  of  Italian  make  which 
possess  the  same  peculiarity  of  being  glazed 
with  lead  on  the  back,  their  decoration  is  so 
characteristic  that  in  their  case  a  mistake  is 
almost   impossible. 

England  was  not  long  in  following  upon  the 
track  of  the  Dutch  potters  who  manufactured  in 
the  town  of  Delft  the  first  pieces  of  stanniferous 
faience,    decorated    with    blue    and  other   colours. 

M.     H.     Havard     in    his     remarkable     book     has 
9 


lOO  ENGLISH    DELFT. 

established  in  a  peremptory  manner,  that  no 
potworks  where  such  ware  was  made,  existed  in 
the  town  before  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  contrary  to  the  belief  generally  accredited, 
and  it  is  only  at  the  date  of  1600  that  he  found 
such  manufactories  mentioned  for  the  first  time  in 
the  official  records.  It  is  for  us  a  fact  worthy 
of  remark  that  the  oldest  authenticated  specimen 
of  blue  painted  ware  made  at  Delft  is  signed 
by  an  Englishman,  one  Tome  Jansz,  a  Dutch 
mis-spelling,  which  conceals  but  imperfectly  the 
British  name  of  Tom  Jones ;  a  soldier,  who  is 
described  as  having  been  **  born  in  England, 
beyond  London,"  and  who  came  to  Holland  with 
the  English  regiment  commanded  by  Captain 
Hamwout  (?)  This  interesting  work  is  a  dish 
painted  with  the  Last  Judgment,  a  subject  com- 
prising four  hundred  figures  of  the  painter's  own 
composition,  and  made  by  him  in  the  factory  of 
Herman  Pietersz  towards   1600. 

The  white  and  painted  earthenware  must  have 
been  made  in  or  near  London,  about  the  year 
1668,  as  appears  from  the  record  of  a  lawsuit 
instituted  by  one  Edmund  Warner  against  the 
Custom  House  authorities,  who  had  seized  one 
of  the  parcels  of  potters*  clay  which  he  used 
to  import  from  Holland.  The  trial  took  place 
in  1693,  ^^^  ftv^  London  potters  gave  evidence 
as  to  the  clay  being  of  the  kind  they  had 
constantly    bought    from     the     said     Warner     for 


ENGLISH   DELFT.  lOI 

above    25    years.      (Catalogue   of  the    Museum    of 
Practical  Geology,  p.  300.     Appendix.) 

At  the  date  of  1676  a  patent  was  taken  out 
by  John  Arien  Von  Hamme,  for  the  sole  practise 
of  ''the  art  of  making  tiles,  porcelain,  and  other 
earthenware,  after  the  way  practised  in  Holland, 
which  has  not  been  practised  in  this  our  kingdom." 
On  the  register  of  the  St.  Lucas'  Guild,  preserved 
at  Delft,  mention  is  made  of  one  Jan  Ariensz 
Van  Hammen,  who  was  received  master  plateel- 
backer  in  1661,  and  who  is  evidently  the  same 
to  whom  this  patent  was  granted.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  reconcile  J.  A.  Van  Hamme's  pre- 
tension of  having  introduced  the  trade  into 
England,  with  the  fact  that  many  pieces  bearing 
an  unmistakably  English  stamp  are  found  in- 
scribed with  a  much  earlier  date  than  that  of 
his  patent.  Thus  a  Delft-ware  mug  in  the 
Jermyn  Street  Museum  is  dated  1631,  and 
inscribed  **  Williayn  &  Elizabeth  Burges ; " 
another  in  Mr.  Willett's  possession  is  painted 
with  the  name  of  ''John  LemaUy  1634."  One 
may  assume  that  towards  the  same  period 
English-made  tiles  were  extensively  in  use  for 
interior  decoration.  Bottles  of  Delft-ware  were 
commonly  used  to  keep  foreign  wines  in ;  they 
were  all  dated  in  blue  pencilling  to  record  the 
year  in  which  the  wine  had  been  bottled  (Fig. 
25).  We  find  them  with  "Sack,  1649,"  ''Claret, 
1648,"   "Whit,    1648,"  etc.     One  of  a  larger  size, 


I02 


ENGLISH    DELFT. 


in  the  Norwich  Museum,  has  the  Grocers'  Arms, 
the  monogram  £  ^  £  and  the  date,  1649.  None 
have   been   found  to   be   dated   later  than    1659. 

Sets  of  three  or  four  cups,  with  their  handles 
entwined  (an  essentially  English  shape),  were 
made  in  Delft  as  well  as  in  Slip-ware.  A  mug 
in  the  South  Kensington  Museum  is  inscribed, 
''Ann    Chapman,    1649."      Many   pieces   bear   the 


Pkj.  25.    Sack  Bott'le.— Coll.  L.  S. 


arms  of  the  City  Companies.  Mr.  A.  Franks 
has  one  with  the  arms  of  the  Bakers'  Company, 
1657,  and  another  with  the  Leathersellers',  1660. 
In  the  Bohn  collection  was  a  quaint-shaped  cup, 
with  the  portrait  of  Charles  II.,  and  the  motto, 
''Be  merry  and  wise,  1660."  A  cup  in  Pro- 
fessor Church's  collection  had  "  God  save  the 
King,  1662,"  inscribed  under  a  crown.  We 
possess    a     cup,    with    twisted    handle,    with    the 


ENGLISH    DELFT.  IO3 

monogram  ^  j  disposed  in  the  English  manner, 
the  top  letter  standing  for  the  surname,  and  the 
other  two  for  the  Christian  name  of  the  husband 
and    wife,    and    the   date,  1667. 

Two  very  important  documents  referring  to  the 
making  of  Delft-ware  in  England  are  given  by 
R.  W.  Binns  in  the  appendix  of  his  work — **  A 
Century  of  Potting  in  the  City  of  Worcester." 
(Second  edition.)  The  first  is  a  petition  addressed 
to  the  king,  Charles  II.,  November,  1676,  by 
several  potters  of  the  City  of  London :  namely, 
John  Ariens  Van  Haunne  (the  same  again  who 
appears  in  the  specifications  of  patents  at  the 
date  of  October,  1676,  as  J.  A.  Van  Hamme), 
James  Barston,  Daniel  Parker,  John  Campion, 
Richard  Newman,  and  divers  others  who  com- 
plain that  "  notwithstanding  the  statute  of 
Edward  IV.  prohibiting  the  bringing  in  of  any 
painted  wares  into  this  kingdom  by  way  of 
merchandise, "  etc.,  "  several  persons  have  pre- 
sumed to  import  and  daily  to  bring  in  several 
great  quantities  of  painted  earthenwares,"  etc.,  "to 
the  inevitable  ruin  of  the  petitioners,  and  many 
hundreds  of  poor  men,  women,  and  children, 
whose  subsistence  and  livelihood  depend  thereon, 
and  the  total  destruction  of  the  manufacture 
here,  which  is  fully  as  well  done  as  any 
foreign,  and  with  most  materials  of  English 
growth,"  etc. 

There    is    not    the  slightest   doubt   here   about 


I04  ENGLISH   DELFT.  ' 

which  sort  of  ware  is  intended.  Painted  ware 
at  that  time  could  be  no  other  than  Delft 
or  stanniferous  faience,  such  as  was  introduced 
in  England  by  the  Dutchman,  T.  A.  Van 
Hamme.  The  second  document  is  still  more 
explicit.  It  is  a  proclamation  of  Charles  II., 
dated  1672,  from  which  we  shall  quote  the  fol- 
lowing : — *'  Whereas  the  art  of  making  all  sorts 
of  painted  earthenwares  is  a  mystery,  but  lately 
found  out  in  England, "  etc.,  "  notwithstanding 
which  divers  merchants  and  others  have  lately 
imported  into  England  great  quantities  of  the 
like  painted  earthenwares,  from  parts  beyond  the 
seas,  and  do  sell  the  same  at  an  under  value 
to  the  great  discouragement  of  so  useful  a  manu- 
facture lately  found  out,"  etc.  **We  therefore," 
etc.,  **  charge  and  command  that  from  henceforth 
np  person,  native  or  foreigner,  do  or  shall  im- 
port, bring,  send,  or  convey"  "from  or  out  of 
any  place  or  part  beyond  the  seas,"  *'any  kind 
or  sort  of  painted  earthenware  whatsoever 
(except  those  of  china,  and  stone  bottles  and 
jugs),  by  way  of  merchandise,"  etc.,  "  that  no 
person  that  now  uses  the  trade  of  retailing,  sell- 
ing, or  uttering  of  any  painted  earthenware 
(except  those  of  china,  and  stone  bottles,  and 
jugs),  shall  at  any  time  hereafter  buy,  bargain,  or 
contract  for  or  concerning  the  importation  of  any 
painted  earthenware,  made  beyond  the  sea  or  in 
any   other   place    out    of  our    said  realm  of  Eng- 


ENGLISH    DELFT.  IO5 

land,"  etc.,  *'upon  pain  of  being  grievously  fined," 
etc 

We  can  elicit  from  the  above  that,  not  only 
had  the  industry  of  the  potter  already  been 
thought  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  protected 
against  foreign  competition,  even  prior  to  this 
petition  being  addressed  to  the  king  by  the 
potters  of  London  (considering  that  the  royal 
proclamation  is  four  years  earlier  in  date),  but 
we  are  also  led  to  surmise  by  the  tenor  of 
these  documents  that  the  manufacture  of  Delft- 
ware  must  have  preceded,  or  have  been  deemed 
more  worthy  of  attention  than  that  of  stone-ware, 
since  the  protection  is  not  extended  to  **  stone 
bottles   and  jugs." 

Drug  pots,  inscribed  in  English  with  the  name 
c(  their  contents,  and  pill-slabs,  are  generally 
ascribed  to  Lambeth.  The  production  of  English 
Delft  became  very  important  in  that  locality,  for 
it  is  said  that  at  one  time  twenty  factories  were 
occupied  in  making  it.  Though  it  never  became 
general  in  England,  the  manufacture  was  estab- 
lished in  some  of  the  seaports  which  had  a 
regular  trade  with  Holland.  At  Liverpool  it 
was  for  a  time  the  "  principal  trade  of  the 
town,"  according  to  the  Holt  &  Gregson  MSS., 
quoted  by  Mr.  Charles  T.  Gatty,  from  whom 
we  borrow  the  following  extracts  : — "  To  stone 
building  (1660)  there  succeeded  brick  and  slate 
building  in  Liverpool.     To  brickmaking  succeeded 


io6 


ENGLISH     DELFT. 


the  clay  potteries.  To  them  Delft-ware.  To  the 
Delft-ware  succeeded  the  whole  flint  or  Queen- 
ware  in  1760,  by  Wedgwood.  The  Delft- ware, 
every  merchant  of  note  in  Liverpool  was  con- 
cerned in  early  in  the  i8th  century."  The 
progression  in  the  different  branches  of  the  trade 
is  plainly  described,  yet,  in  this  case  also,  pieces 
authenticated  by  tradition  carry  us  back  to  a  still 
earlier  period.  A  Delft  mug  in  the  Liverpool 
Museum,  attributed  to  Liverpool  manufacture,  is 
inscribed,  ''John  Williamsony  1645."  ^^  we  can 
implicitly  trust  its  evidence,  the  ware  had  been 
manufactured  long  before  the  period  referred  to 
by  the   writer. 

In  1 716  the  English  Delft  had  already  been 
brought  near  to  perfection,  as  we  can  see  by  the 
large  plaque . preserved  in  the  Mayer  Museum;  it 
is  painted  in  blue,  with  a  view  of  Great  Crosby, 
the  landscape  being  plentifully  diversified  with 
ships,  houses,  figures,  and  animals  of  all  sorts. 
In  the  old  church  at  Crosby  may  also  be  seen 
a  plaque  of  the  same  ware,  with  the  arms  of  the 
Merchant  Taylors'  Company,  and  the  date,  1722. 
At  that  time  the  ware  was  already  exported 
in  large  quantities,  and  numberless  examples 
have  been  preserved  to  us  dating  far  down  in 
the  eighteenth  century.  Among  these  may  be 
mentioned  tiles  for  fire-places,  with  blue  land- 
scapes and  figure  subjects  ;  puzzle  jugs  of  elegant 
shape     (Fig.     26),      thinly     potted     and     brighdy 


ENGLISH     DELFT.  IO7 

glazed,  with  doggrel  verses  painted  all  round ; 
and  especially  large  punch  bowls,  decorated  with  a 
ship  in  full  sail,  and  a  border  of  Chinese  flowers. 
On  these  the  blue  painting  is  so  cleverly  executed 
that  they  vie  with  many  a  piece  made  in 
Holland,  and  the  artists  had  nothing  more  to 
learn  from  their  masters.  Shaw  and  Pennington 
were  very  celebrated  for  their  punch  bowls 
between    1750    and    1780.      The    Mayer  Museum 


Fig.  26.    Delit  Puzzle  Juc— Coll.  L.  S. 

has  one  1 7I  inches  in  diameter.  Another  of  the 
same  style  in  the  Jermyn  Street  Museum  is  20^ 
inches  in  diameter.  In  the  Mechanics'  Institution 
at  Hanley,  another  bowl,  also  20^  inches  in 
diameter,  is  rendered  particularly  interesting  by 
the  label  accompanying  it,  which  has  been  written 
by  the  painter  himself:  ''John  Robinson,  a  pot 
painter,     served     his     time     at     Penningtons,     in 


I08  ENGLISH   DELFT." 

Shaws  Br 07V,  and  there  painted  this  punch  bowL^' 
They  are  all  of  them  masterpieces  of  the  craft. 

At  Vauxhall  and  Mortlake,  Delft-ware  potteries 
were  carried  on,  but  no  specimens  have  been  so 
far  identified  as  coming  from  these  places. 

At  Bristol,  English  Delft  was  extensively  manu- 
factured from  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  but  the  pofters  of  that  city  never 
attained  to  the  degree  of  perfection  which  the 
art  reached  at  Liverpool.  The  glaze  is  far  from 
being  so  bright,  some  of  the  colours  are  dull, 
and  lack  the  gloss  usually  noticed  on  the  fine 
stanniferous  enamel.  A  plate  painted  in  blue, 
dated  1703,  and  a  high-heeled  shoe,  dated  1727, 
are  referred  to  Bristol  manufacture.  Tiles  for 
house  decoration  were  painted,  so  as  to  form, 
when  put  together,  a  large  panel.  Thus  the 
Jermyn  Street  Museum  has  a  set  made  at 
Richard  Franks',  1738 — 1750,  upon  which  is 
painted  a  view  of  Redcliff  Church.  Mr.  Fry  has 
two  sets  of  nine  tiles  each,  with  the  picture  of  a 
cat  and  a  dog,  and  Mr.  Willett  a  copy  of 
Hogarth's  "  March  to  Finchley,"  on  a  panel 
composed   of  seventy-two   tiles. 

Thomas  Heath  introduced  Delft-ware  into 
Staffordshire  towards  1710.  Shaw  tells  us  how 
he  contrived  a  new  mixture  of  clays  from  the 
coal  measures.  He  describes  a  dish  made  by 
this  potter,  "  which  was  one  of  a  set  manu- 
factured  as   specimens   of  the  new  kind  of  ware." 


ENGLISH    DELFT.  lOQ 

Though  the  author  mistakes  the  white  enamel  for 
a  dip  of  white  clay,  the  description  is  so  accurate, 
that  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  piece  being 
English  Delft.  **  The  upper  surface  is  tolerably- 
even  ;  but  the  under  surface  is  spotted  with 
minute  holes,  and  exhibits  the  coarse  material 
of  the  body."  The  same  peculiarity  is  to  be 
noticed  upon  the  back  of  nearly  all  the  dishes 
coming  from  Holland  ;  the  cause  is,  that  while 
the  inside  of  the  dish  is  formed  on  a  mould, 
with  a  bat  of  clay  carefully  smoothed  over  the 
surface,  the  outside  has  to  be  cut  and  turned, 
thereby  exposing  all  the  small  holes  that  may 
exist  in  the  bulk  of  the  clay ;  and  as  the  glaze 
does  not  penetrate  them,  after  the  firing  these 
perforations  remain  and  are  increased  in  size. 
This  was  considered  such  a  drawback  by  the 
Staffordshire  potters  that,  as  we  have  already 
observed,  they  did  not  attempt  to  enamel  the 
backs  of  their  dishes,  but  merely  glazed  them 
with  lead.  In  that  manner  are  made  those  huge 
dishes  representing  :  Adam  and  Eve  under  the 
tree  of  knowledge  (about  the  only  Scriptural 
subject  which  was  ever  a  favourite  one  with 
the  English  Potter,  and  was  restricted  to  the 
decoration  of  Delft-ware),  King  William  and 
Queen  Mary,  in  an  endless  variety  of  patterns. 
Queen  Anne,  George  I.,  the  Duke  of  Marl- 
borough, and  many  celebrated  personages  of  the 
time.     The    style    of   painting    is    not    very   com- 


no  ENGLISH   DELFT. 

mend  able ;  the  figures  are  rudely  drawn,  and 
heavily  patched  with  blue  ;  sometimes  there  is  a 
random  staining  of  copper  green  or  a  few  dashes 
of  yellow,  and  clouds  and  trees  are  daubed  on 
with  a  rag  or  a  sponge  soaked  in  blue.  It 
seems  as  though  the  painter,  whose  unattractive 
task  was  only  to  follow  a  foreign  model,  did  not 
care  whether  he  pleased  himself  or  anybody  else. 
The  rims  are  marked  all  round  with  heavy  strokes 
of  the  brush,  in  a  way  that  recalls  the  indenta- 
tions practised  on  the  edges  of  the  Slip  dishes. 

This  new  kind  of  ware  was  no  doubt  very 
successful,  and  its  production  was  stimulated  by 
the  serious  competition  the  Dutch  carried  on 
against  the  English  potters,  even  upon  their  own 
grounds.  The  dishes  representing  William  and 
Mary  were  ,  first  made  at  Lambeth,  before  being 
imitated  in  Staffordshire.  We  may  safely  surmise 
that  the  quantity  of  these  dishes  still  in  existence 
come  from  different  manufactories ;  and  although 
they  never  bear  any  names  or  marks  which  could 
assist  us  in  their  identification,  we  may  judge 
from  the  inequality  of  the  workmanship  and 
materials  that  they  could  not  all  originate  from 
the  same  place.  Upon  some  of  them  are  repre- 
sented the  equestrian  figure  of  the  king,  or  the 
royal  couple,  elaborately  designed  by  a  skilled 
hand,  while  the  others  show  nothing  more  than 
a  barbarous  outline  or  the  scrolls  of  a  shapeless 
ornamentation,   traced    by    a    rough    workman    un- 


ENGLISH  DELFT.  Ill 

acquainted  with  the  first  principles  of  his  trade. 
The  same  observation  applies  to  the  bodies  and 
glazes,  as  fine  and  brilliant  in  the  first  case  as 
they  are  rude  and  imperfect  in  the  second. 
William  III.  seems  to  have  fostered  by  all  the 
means  in  his  power  the  introduction  into  England 
of  the  faience  of  his  own  country.  He  was  wont 
to  make  presents  of  his  portrait  painted  on  large 
dishes ;  and  it  was  at  the  suggestion  of  his 
ambassador  at  the  Hague,  that,  according  to 
Horace  Walpole,  A.  Von  Hamme  came  over  to 
establish  a  factory  in  London.  In  an  old  family 
at  Dartmouth  is  still  preserved  one  of  these 
dishes,  which  the  king  himself  gave  to  one  of 
the  ancestors,  then  mayor  of  the  town,  in  acknow- 
ledgment of  services  rendered  when  he  landed  as 
Prince  of  Orange. 

We  may  well  ask  ourselves  the  puzzling  ques- 
tion, what  has  become  of  the  immense  quantity 
of  English  Delft- ware  turned  out  for  a  century 
at  the  twenty  factories  that  were  working  at 
Lambeth,  and  at  the  numerous  pot  works  of 
Liverpool  and  Bristol,  where  it  once  was  the 
staple  trade  of  the  town  ?  In  our  days  it  is 
with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  we  can  pick  up 
a  few  stray  specimens  of  undoubted  British  make 
amongst  the  crowd  of  common  pieces  sent  over 
by  the  Dutch  exporters,  from  which  they  are 
often   hardly   distinguishable. 

We    must    say    that   the   making    of  Delft-ware 


112  ENGLISH     DELFT. 

never  interfered  in  England  with  the  develop- 
ment of  local  productions,  which  continued  to 
be  made  with  native  materials.  Seldom  do  we 
find  English  Delft  in  pieces  of  general  use  in 
the  country ;  for  example,  few,  if  any,  tea-pots, 
mugs,  or  common  jugs  are  to  be  met  with.  It 
was  limited  rather  to  fancy  articles,  such  as 
decorative  tiles,  vases,  and  dessert  plates ;  most 
of  it  was  no  doubt  exported  to  the  colonies^ 
and  the  small  quantity  that  remained  was  spread 
all  over  the  country,  and*  is  now,  with  few 
exceptions,  mistaken   for    Dutch    ware. 

Delft-ware  became  so  fashionable  that  the 
English  potters  had  to  apply  that  name  to  such 
substitutes  as  they  could  contrive  to  manufacture. 
The  ware  has  disappeared  a  long  time  ago,  but 
the  name  has  been  preserved  to  this  day,  and 
all  common  crockery  is  still  called  Delf  in 
many  country  places.  Lane- Delf  became  the 
name  of  the  place  where  stood  the  several  pot- 
works  manufacturing  it,  but  not  before  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  as  it  is  not  marked 
on  the  map  drawn  by  Dr.  Plot.  It  was  situated 
between  Lane  End  and  Fenton,  and  at  the 
present  time  forms   part  of  the   last-named   town. 

Earnest  efforts  were  made  to  naturalise  the 
stanniferous  enamel  in  the  Potteries,  but  with 
little  success,  the  result  being  very  unsatisfactory. 
The  glaze  is  poor  and  crazes  badly  ;  the  colours 
do    not    approach    the    liveliness     of    continental 


ENGLISH    DELFT.  II3 

faience  ;  besides  cobalt  and  manganese,  mostly 
used,  we  see  only  copper  green  and  antimony 
yellow,  sparingly  employed  and  without  any 
brilliancy.  The  process  was  hardly  diversified  in 
its  effects.  We  possess  two  jugs  coated  with  a 
stanniferous  blue,  decorated  with  white  enamel, 
much  in  the  style  of  the  Nevers  faience,  and 
a  teapot  which  has  the  same  opaque  ground, 
combined  with  transparent  enamels,  and  fired  in 
the  Salt-glaze  oven ;  but  specimens  of  these  kinds 
are   seldom    met   with. 

Not  only  was  the  ware  ill  adapted  to  domestic 
requirements,  but  the  tin,  so  largely  used  in  its 
manufacture,  was  so  expensive  a  material,  that  the 
potters  had  to  tax  their  ingenuity  until  they 
could  supply  a  somewhat  similar  article  more 
easily  and  cheaply  manufactured.  The  white 
dip,  invented  by  Asibury,  was  resorted  to,  and 
might  have  been  successful  in  its  application  but 
for  the  imperfections  of  the  lead  glaze,  which 
tinted  it  deeply  with  yellow.  Nevertheless,  the 
regular  earthenware  was  found  so  much  superior 
in  quality,  that  in  the  Potteries  the  attempts  to 
imitate  the  foreign  Delft  were  soon  abandoned, 
while  dipped  or  cream-coloured  ware,  painted  in 
blue,  continued  to  go  by  the  name  of  Delft. 
The  "  dip "  process,  that  is  to  say,  the  coating 
of  a  coarse  clay  with  a  fine  white  one,  was 
still  in  use  at  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century ;    many    of    the    best    blue   printed  dinner 


114  ENGLISH     DELFT. 

services,  with  Chinese  patterns,  are  made  in  that 
way ;  the  breaking  of  a  piece  exhibits  a  coarse 
body   covered   with    a   thin   layer   of  white   sHp. 

Upon  the  pieces  of  Lambeth,  Liverpool,  and 
Bristol  manufacture,  inscriptions  occur  frequently, 
and  although  they  lack  the  "  naive "  simplicity 
of  the  slip  ones,  many  of  them  are  well  worth 
being  recorded.  They  take  the  form  of  short 
mottoes   on   the   earliest   pieces : — 

"  MAY    IT    BE   WELL    USED." 
"BE    MERRY 

On  shaving  dishes  : — 

"your  quarter  is  due." 
On  a  small  caudle  pot,  as  a  wish  : — 

"  BOY." 

A  dish  destroyed  at  the  fire  of  the  Alexandra 
Palace   was   inscribed  : — 

**  earth    I    AM    ET    is    MOST    TRWE, 
DESDAN    ME    NOT    FOR    SO    AR    YOU. 
JAN.   I  6th,    1660.       GEORG  :    AND  ELLIZABETH  STERE." 

Later  on  we  find  allusions  to  political  events: — 

"PARLIAMENT     BOWL     FREE    WITHOUT    EXCISE,    1 736," 
and    "GOD    GRANT   UNITY,     1 746." 

Upon  six  dessert  plates,  each  having  one  line 
of  a   verse,    we   read  : — 

1.  "WHAT    IS   A    MERRY    MAN?" 

2.  "LET    HIM    DO    WHAT    HE    CAN," 


ENGLISH    DELFT.  115 

3.  "  TO    ENTERTAIN    HIS    GUESTS  " 

4.  "WITH    WINE   AND    MERRY   JESTS," 

5.  "but   if   HIS   WIFE   DO    FROWN," 

6.  "ALL    MERRIMENT   GOES    DOWN 1  738." 

On   a  bowl    in   the   Geological    Museum : — 

"JOHN    UDY   OF   LUXILLION 
HIS    TIN    WAS    SO    FINE 
IT    GLIDERED    THIS    PUNCH    BOWL 
AND    MADE    IT    TO    SHINE,    &C.,    &C. 1 731." 


"  ONE    BOWL   MORE   AND   THEN. 

Doggrel    verses,    all    to   the   same   purport,    are 
very   varied   on   the   puzzle  jugs  : — 

"HERE   GENTLEMEN    COME    TRY   YOUR    SKILL 
i'l    HOULD    a    wager    if    YOU     WILL 
THAT    YOU    don't    DRINK    THIS    LIQUOR    ALL 
WITHOUT    YOU     SPILL    OR   LET    SOME    FALL." 


THEN     FORMD    a    JUG     BY     MAN 

AND    NOW    STAND    HERE    FILED  WITH  GOOD  CHEER 

TASTE    OF     ME     IF     YOU     CAN." 


"IF    THIS    BE    YE    FIRST    THAT    YOU    HAVE    SEEN 

i'lL  lay  the  WEAGER  WHICH  YOU  PLEASE  TO  PAY 

THAT   YOU    don't    DRINK    THIS    LIQUOR    ALL 

WITHOUT    YOU    SPILL    OR    LET    SOME    FALL." 
10 


Ii6 


ENGLISH    DELFT. 


"  within  this  can  there  is  good  liquor  ' 
'tis  fit  for  parson  or  for  vicar 
but  how  to  drink  and  not  to  spill 
will  try  the  utmost  of  your  skill.** 

This  is  an  example  of  friendly  inscriptions  on 
presentation  pieces  : — 

**  JOSEPH     SWADELL. 
WHEN  YOU  THIS  SEE  REMEMBER  ME 

AND  BEAR  ME  IN  YOUR  MIND 
LET  ALL  THE  WORLD  SAY  WHAT  THEY  WILL 

SPEAK  OF  ME  AS  YOU  FIND. 1774." 

We  might  multiply  quotations,  but  the  above 
will  suffice  to  show  that  the  Delft  potter  was 
very   prolific    in   his   poetical    lucubrations. 

So  many  counterfeits  of  foreign  ware  were 
made  in  England  as  to  compel  us  to  acknow- 
ledge that,  as  a  rule,  English  potters  were  in 
many  instances  not  over  scrupulous  as  to  the 
way  in  which  they  tried  to  palm  off  their  pro- 
ductions as  something  different  from  what  they 
really  were.  Thus  Stone-ware  and  faience  were 
at  first  styled  Porcelain ;  at  the  same  time  that 
English  ware  was  made  to  imitate  that  which 
came  from  abroad,  the  latter  was  sold  as  home- 
made. It  is  also  well  known  that  no  sooner 
did  some  ingenious  potter  originate  a  new 
process  or  style,  and  had  endeavoured  to 
protect  it  by  affixing  his  mark,  than  these 
marks     were    pirated     in     a     shameless     manner. 


ENGLISH    DELFT.  IIJ 

Were  it  not  that  English  Delft  had  its  halcyon 
days,  which  cannot  be  ignored,  this  chapter  ought 
never  to  have  been  written  for  a  book  whose 
special  purpose  is  to  point  out  what  was  original 
in  the  early  Ceramic  Art  of  England.  In  some 
cases,  out  of  a  mere  imitation  a  particular  style 
may  develop  itself;  by  degrees  it  frees  itself 
from  leading  strings,  and  then  runs  freely  on  a 
new  course  ;  but  it  was  not  so  with  the  tin- 
glazed  ware  of  British  manufacture ;  never  was 
it  raised  to  a  very  high  level,  nor  did  it  even 
attempt  to  leave  the  track  of  a  spiritless  imita- 
tion. The  best  Liverpool  pieces  are  nothing 
after  all  but  copies  of  the  Dutch  faience,  and 
would  be  indistinguishable  from  their  models  but 
for  the  English  inscriptions  and  a  certain  clumsi- 
ness of  execution.  Those  who  manufactured 
them  have  left  their  names  in  many  documents 
of  the  time,  but  by  no  means  the  impress  of 
individual  genius  upon  their  works  ;  nor  did  they 
bequeath  to  their  successors  the  least  discovery 
or  improvement  for  which  any  credit  can  be  given 
to  them. 


CHAPTER    V. 


THE     BROTHERS     ELERS    AND 
THE    STAMPED    WARE. 


The     Brothers     Elers     come     from     Holland.  —  Some 
Account  of  their   family. — John   Philip  probably  the 
Potter  of  the  two.— Bradwell  Wood  and  Dimsdale. 
— The  Red   ware. — Metal   dies  used  to  stamp  the 
ornaments. — Black      ware. — The      imitations. — 
Tests  for  identification. — The  word  Porcelain 
applied   in   that  time  to   opaque  ware.— In- 
troduction of  salt  glazing. — Deep  secrecy 

preserved  in    the  manufactory. — ASTBURY 

and  twyford  discover   the  secrets.— 

The   Elers    leave    Staffordshire. — 

John    Philip    joins     the    Chelsea 

glass-works.  —  He    settles    in 

Dublin. — The    works   of   Ast- 

bury   and  other   imitators. 

— Purtobello   ware. 


THE     ELERS 


HAT  the  Moors  of  Spain  effected  for 
the  improvement  of  the  potter's  art 
in  Italy,  and  what  subsequently  the 
Italians  did  in  France  (as  it  has  now 
been  ascertained),  for  the  introduction  of  a  new 
kind  of  pottery,  which  was  to  develop  itself  there 
into  so  many  varieties,  the  Brothers  Elers  did 
for  the  advancement  of  earthenware  in  Stafford- 
shire. The  uneducated  butter-pot  makers  and 
tilewrights  were  just  beginning  to  feel  the  first 
stirrings  of  an  ambition  to  improve  their  coarse 
productions,  when  the  Elers  came  among  them, 
bringing  new  ways  and  new  tools,  and,  above  all, 
their  taste  for  beauty  and  refinement;  such  a  feel- 
ing, hitherto  unknown  in  the  district,  was  in  itself 
suf^cient  to  give  an  impetus  to  the  latent  desire  for 
perfection,  without  impairing  the  native  originality. 


122  THE    ELERS. 

From  Holland  the  Brothers  Elers  seem  to  have 
followed  the  fortunes  of  the  Prince  of  Orange, 
and  to  have  come  in  his  train  to  England  in 
1688.  They  were  of  a  noble  family  of  Saxony. 
Mr.  Jewitt  (Life  of  Josiah  WedgwoodJ  gives 
their  complete  genealogy,  but  it  will  be  sufficient 
for  our  purpose  to  relate  that  their  father  had 
been  Ambassador  to  several  courts  of  Europe, 
and  that  during  his  term  of  office  as  Burgo- 
master of  Amsterdam,  he  is  said  to  have 
harboured  in  his  house  the  royal  exile,  Henrietta 
Maria.  His  two  sons,  our  potters,  were  John 
Philip  and  David  ;  the  Elector  of  Mentz  and 
Queen  Christina  stood  godfather  and  godmother 
to  the  former. 

The  earliest  mention  of  the  name  of  Elers  in 
this  country  is  found  in  the  Parliamentary  Records 
of  the  House  of  Commons  ;  at  the  date  of 
January,  1680,  we  see  that  an  engrossed  bill 
for  the  naturalisation  of  Peter  Elers  and  others 
was  read  a  third  time,  with  the  resolution  *'  that 
the  bill  do  pass,  and  the  title  be  an  Act  for 
the  naturalisation  of  Peter  Elers  and  others 
aliens  born."  But  what  relationship  existed  be- 
tween this  worthy  and  the  two  brothers  who 
make  the  subject  of  this  chapter,  we  have  so 
far  been  unable  to  ascertain. 

The  date  of  their  arrival  in  Staffordshire  is 
somewhat  uncertain  ;  nor  is  it  known  whether 
William    HI.    continued   to   extend  his    patronage 


THE    ELERS.  1 23 

to  them  beyond  granting  a  pension  of  ^300  to 
their  sister.  David  set  up  as  a  merchant,  and 
opened  an  earthenware  shop  in  London.  Was 
it  in  the  course  of  his  business  transactions  that 
he  became  acquainted  with  the  peculiar  advan- 
tages offered  by  Staffordshire  for  the  establishment 
of  a  potting  manufactory,  and  was  it  in  that 
way  that  the  brothers  decided  to  settle  on  the 
spot  ?  Or,  rather,  was  it  that  on  coming  to 
England  they  at  once  sought  the  acquaintance 
of  Dwighty  himself  of  Dutch  extraction,  then  the 
leading  man  of  the  trade,  and  in  this  matter 
did  they  act  on  his  advice  .-^  DwigJit,  during 
his  stay  in  Chester,  had  experimented  upon  all 
the  clays  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  no  one 
better  acquainted  than  he  with  the  advantages 
to  be  found  in  the  locality  could  have  directed 
their  attention  to  the  remote  spot  on  which  they 
ultimately  settled.  In  1698  they  had  already 
been  long  at  work.  Dr.  Martin  Lister  speaks 
about  the  red-ware  made  "  by  the  two  Dutchmen 
brothers  who  wrought  in  Staffordshire,  and  were 
not  long  since  at  Hammersmith."  From  this  we 
may  infer  that  they  were  occasionally  together  in 
London  ;  but  it  is  probable  that  while  David  was 
selling  the  ware  at  his  shop  in  the  "  Poultry," 
John  Philip  was  manufacturing  it  at  Bradwell 
Wood.  Indeed,  when  his  son,  Paul  Elers,  writes 
to  Wedgwood  in  1777  about  his  father,  he  seems 
to  claim  for  him  alone  the  honour  of  having  been 


124  THE    ELERS. 

the  first  potter  in  England,  directing  that  under 
his  portrait  should  be  engraved  ''Johannes 
Philipus  Elers,  Plastices  BritanniccB  Inventor " 
(Miss    Meteyard,    ''Life   of   Wedgwood''), 

Bradwell  Wood  is  at  the  present  day  as  lonely 
a  spot  as  it  was  in  the  time  of  the  Elers,  It 
lies  some  distance  from  the  road  leading  from 
Wolstanton  to  Burslem,  and  a  farm-house  is  the 
only  building  on  the  place.  Dimsdale,  where  the 
Elers  stored  and  sold  their  productions,  is  about 
a  mile  distant.  It  is  a  timbered  building  of  the 
Elizabethan  period,  half  manor,  half  farm-house, 
with  a  small  pool  of  water  in  the  front,  and 
encircled  with  clumps  of  old  trees.  In  the  in- 
terior a  very  dilapidated  wainscoted  room  is  all 
that  remains  of  what  may  have  been  in  the  past 
a  noble  building;  and  in  that  case,  if  they  did 
really  inhabit  the  hall,  the  aristocratic  potters 
found  there  a  home  befitting  their  station.  At 
this  moment,  when  the  newly-discovered  telephone 
is  used  so  extensively,  it  is  curious  to  recall  the 
story  that  the  two  places  had  been  connected 
together  for  convenience  sake  by  a  speaking  tube 
made  of  clay  pipes,  through  which  a  conversation 
could   be   carried    on. 

There,  ready  to  hand,  was  to  bejgrocured  the  red 
clay  they  wanted  for  their  best  work,  the  ware 
which  was  to  be  the  first  step  towards  the 
imitation  of  Oriental  hard  pottery,  called  by 
them     red     porcelain,     "for    which,"     says    Shaw, 


THE    ELERS.  1 25 

**  they  mixed  one  part  of  the  Bradwell  red  clay 
and  four  parts  of  the  Hill  Top  clay."  Numbers 
of  hands  "already  trained  to  the  common  drudgery 
of  potting  were  also  available  on  the  spot.  No 
doubt  this  was  of  great  assistance  to  the  new 
comers,  and  yet  we  shall  see  further  on  how 
much  they  distrusted  such  helpers  as  they  were 
obliged   to   employ. 

Industrial  art  is  constantly  influenced  by  cir- 
cumstances which  create  fresh  wants.  It  has 
often  been  related  how  the  French  faience  owes 
its  development  to  the  ruinous  war  with  Holland; 
the  nobility,  called  upon  to  contribute  to  its  cost, 
had  to  sell  their  family  plate  to  eke  out  the 
failing  resources  of  the  king.  The  potters  of 
Rouen  and  other  places  supplied  a  new  kind  of 
earthenware,  which,  although  moderate  in  price, 
was  not  unworthy  of  having  a  place  upon  the 
table  or  dresser.  When  tea  was  introduced  into 
England,  its  use  at  once  became  so  general  that 
cups  and  teapots  could  not  be  imported  from 
China  in  sufficient  quantities ;  and  this  new  want 
spreading  among  all  classes  of  society,  a  power- 
ful impulse  was  given  to  the  production  of  a 
more  delicate  and  refined  sort  of  ware  than  that 
which  had  been  manufactured  before  for  common 
purposes.  The  Elers  found  at  once  scope  for 
displaying  their  art  in  the  imitation  of  the  dainty 
little  vessels  then  thought  indispensable  for  brew- 
ing   the    costly   beverage,    and    their   red  tea-pots 


126  THE    ELERS. 

and    cups    found    a    ready   market,    at  very   high 
prices. 

The     Elers    red-ware     is    a    dense    and   semi- 
vitrified    body,    which   chemically  differs  only  from 
porcelain    by   its   lack   of  translucency.     Professor 
Church    gives    its     hardness    as    about    5    on   the 
mineralogical     scale,    and    its    density    as   ranging 
between  2*3  and  2*41.     The  fineness  of  the  paste 
is    due    to    the  careful     levigating   and   sifting   of 
the     natural    clay,    and    its    hardness   to   the   high 
degree     of    firing    to     which     it    was    submitted. 
The  colour  of  the  body  is  of  a  lighter  tint  than  that 
of  the  red-ware   made    by    other  makers,  and  the 
pieces   are   especially  remarkable  for  the  neat  and 
skilful    way     in    which   they   were   turned   on    the 
lathe.     Very   peculiar  is  their  style  of  ornamenta- 
tion,    and,    however    simple   and  unpretentious    in 
its    character,  it    can    be    said   to    have   little    re- 
semblance    to     anything     done     before.      It     was 
derived    from     the  recollection   of  some   Japanese 
or    Chinese     pieces,     imitated,     but     not     actually 
copied,     and     so     became     a     style    of    its    own. 
Rigorous   reproduction   was  certainly   not  the  aim 
the  Elers  had  in  view  when  they  produced  their 
red  tea-pots,   which   had  nothing  Oriental  in  them 
but     their    outward     look,    for    they    did   not   use 
any    of    the   means    which   would   have   conduced 
to   a  close    imitation,    not   even    the   pressing  and 
moulding    which    are    always    employed    by    the 
Chinese   for   those   pieces   which    are    regarded   as 


THE    ELERS. 


127 


having  been  their  models.  The  raised  designs 
that  sparingly  decorate  the  smooth  ground  were 
obtained  by  means  of  small  metal  dies  sunk  in 
the  shape  of  a  flower  or  a  leaf.  On  the  surface, 
delicately  lined  over  and  finished  on  the  wheel, 
a  little  lump  of  wet  clay  was  applied  at  the  place 
where  a  relief  was  intended,  and  stamped  in  the 
same  way  as  the  impression  of  a  seal  is  taken 
upon  wax.  The  excess  of  clay  round  the  outlines 
was    then    carefully    scraped    off  with    a   tool,  and 


Fig.  27.    Elers  Wark.— Coix.  L.  S. 


the  flowers  and  leaves  were  connected  together 
with  stems  made  by  hand,  so  that  with  the  same 
tools  the  pattern  might  be  greatly  varied.  The 
impressions  sometimes  represent  small  figures  bear- 
ing a  strong  German  character  in  their  design 
(Fig.  27).  Thus  we  have  :  the  four  quarters  of 
the  globe  ;  a  lady  holding  a  flower,  or  a  huntsman 
with  his  gun ;  but  most  frequently  the  orna- 
mentation      consists      of      rosettes,      scrolls,       or 


128 


THE    ELERS. 


"entrelacs,"  quite  typical  in  their  arrangement. 
The  handles  and  spouts  are  plain,  and  were 
made  by  hand.  The  articles  produced  by  the 
Elers  were  very  simple,  and,  so  far  as  we  know, 
restricted  to  tea- ware  (Fig.  28).  We  never  came 
across  a  single  piece  of  red-ware  which  was 
merely  ornamental,  and  which  could  at  the  same 
time   with   certainty   be   ascribed   to   them. 


Fig.  28.    Elers  Ware.— Stoke  Museum. 


Though  stamping  on  clay  had  been  commonly 
used  centuries  before,  on  the  Samian  ware  for 
instance,  which  was  also  made  of  fine  red  clay, 
well  turned  and  impressed  with  seals ;  on  the 
German  gres  Stone-ware,  and  even  upon  some 
early  English  pieces  ;  yet  the  Elers  way  of 
using  the  tools  was  very  different,  and  the  effect 
does     not    recall    to   the   mind  any  of  the    above- 


THE    ELERS. 


129 


mentioned  potteries.     In  the  Hanley  Museum  are 
still    preserved     a     few     of     these     dies 
(Fig.    29),    and  also   some    brass    moulds 
in   use     at  the   same   period    for   making 
spoons  and  other  small  pieces. 

A    black    body    made    from    a  mixture 
of   "  red  clay  and   oxide   of   manganese," 
is   said  to   have    been    manufactured    by     brass' dIe. 
the   ElerSy    imitated   by    their   successors, 
and     perfected      by      PVed^ood     in      his      black 
basalt.     Of  this    we  have  not  seen    any   authentic 


Fig,  ag. 


Fig.  30.    Black-  Ware.— Hanlev  Museum. 


specimens,  but  in  the  aforesaid  museum  are  two 
teapots  of  a  dead  black  clay,  stamped  with 
seals,  and  showing  the  characteristic  hawthorn 
flowers,  or  vine  leaves  (Fig.  30).  They  were 
presented  by  Enoch  Wood,  who  knew  them  to 
be  the  work  of  Twyford  (one  of  their  imitators), 
as  the  label  attached  to  the  pieces  and  written 
in  his  own  hand  testifies.  Genuine  pieces  of 
Elers     ware    are    now    exceedingly     scarce ;     but 


130  THE    ELERS. 

imitations  are  very  numerous,  and  these  '  are 
constantly  mistaken  for  real  specimens.  They 
continued  to  be  made  long  after  the  brothers 
had  left  the  country.  Thus,  Shaw  mentions  the 
indenture,  dated  1750,  of  one  J.  Fletcher,  who  was 
apprenticed  to  J,  Taylor,  *'  to  handle,  and  stick 
legs  to  the  red  porcelain."  The  identification 
becomes  sometimes  difficult  when  we  have  to  deal 
with  some  of  these  jugs  or  teapots,  which,  bear- 
ing the  same  branch  of  Chinese  blossoms,  were 
later  on  manufactured  in  so  many  places ;  but 
we  may  give  the  following  as  the  results  of 
our  observations : — First,  seldom,  if  ever,  did  the 
Elers  produce  anything  of  large  dimensions  ;  the 
most  authentic  pieces  are  of  a  very  small  size, 
and  the  body  of  the  original  pieces  is  so  dense 
that  it  can  ,be  cut  upon  the  lapidary's  wheel  and 
receive  the  polish  of  a  hard  stone.  Next,  the 
decoration  is  confined  principally  to  lines  and 
bands  sharply  turned  on  the  lathe,  accompanied 
with  a  few  flowers  or  small  scrolls  stamped 
in  relief  with  the  seal.  Lastly,  in  no  case  do 
they  show  any  part  that  has  been  pressed  in  a 
mould.  Spouts  and  handles  modelled  into  orna- 
mental shapes,  such  as  are  to  be  seen  on  many 
pieces  which  otherwise  possess  all  the  peculiarities 
of  the  Elers  ware,  are  always  a  sign  that  these 
are  the  works  of  one  of  their  successors  (Fig. 
31).  As  to  the  pseudo-Chinese  marks,  these  are 
to    be   found   on    the   imitations   as   well    as    upon 


THE     ELERS. 


131 


the   originals,    and   cannot   in    any   way   be   relied 
upon  as  guides  to  identification. 

Unfortunately,  no  fragments  have  ever,  to  our 
knowledge,  been  dug  out  to  enlighten  us  either 
upon  this  red  ware  or  upon  any  other  ware  the 
Elers  may  have  manufactured.  Tradition  has  it 
that  they  carried  away  and  buried  all  their  im- 
perfect pieces  in  a  distant  place.     In  an  expedition 


Fig.  31.    Elbks  Style,  made  by  thkik  Succxssosa.— Sodbn  Smith  Coll. 


to    the    site    of   their    works    which    we    made   in 

company    with    Mr.    T.    Hulme,    of  Burslem,    we 

found   the   excavation    where   they   obtained    their 

red   clay,    but   all   the   diggings    we  attempted  for 

**  vouchers "    were    completely    fruitless,    and    the 

oldest  people  engaged  upon  the  place  told  us  that 

they    did    not  remember  any  fragments  of  pottery 

having  ever  been  turned  out. 
II 


132  THE    ELERS.    ' 

In  Germany,  a  few  years  later,  Bottcher  was 
making  what  he  also  called  Red  Porcelain  ;  its 
finest  specimens  were,  as  it  is  well  known,  un- 
glazed,  and  finished  by  cutting,  polishing,  and 
engraving.  The  Elers  ware  can  be  treated  in 
the  same  manner,  and  we  have  ourselves  tried 
the  experiment  with  complete  success.  The  out- 
ward likeness  between  the  two  productions  is 
probably  fortuitous ;  at  all  events  there  can  be 
no  confusion  between  them,  as  the  German  red 
pieces  are  pressed,  the  ornaments  being  obtained 
by  moulding  instead  of  stamping.  As  to  the 
name  of  Red  Porcelain  being  applied  to  both,  it 
should  be  remembered  that  at  that  time  all 
Oriental  ware,  whatever  its  kind  or  colour,  was 
called  porcelain,  and  these  varieties  did  not  pur- 
port to  bq  imitations  of  the  translucent  ware 
which  we  now  call  porcelain,  but  only  of  the 
fine  red  pottery  imported  from  China  and  Japan. 
Furthermore,  we  hear  of  Dwight  describing  his 
*'gres"  Stone-ware  as  **  grey  porcelain,"  and 
porcelain  is  also  the  name  given  by  Place  to  his 
mottled-ware. 

The  etymology  of  the  word  cannot  be  said  to 
have  been  very  satisfactorily  traced,  and  numerous 
and  far-fetched  are  the  speculations  about  it.  Not 
the  least  curious  is  that  of  Dr.  Johnson,  generally 
so  cautious  in  his  assertions,  who  gives  it  as 
coming  from  the  French  '*  Pour  cent  ans,"  because 
it    was    a    common    belief   that    the    materials  for 


THE     ELERS.  ^33 

making  it  had  previously  to  be  buried  for  a 
hundred  years.  Another  strange  derivation  is  the 
one  from  the  name  of  King  Porcena ;  tradition 
says  that  in  his  endeavours  to  avoid  being 
poisoned,  he  used  some  cups  made  of  a  certain 
substance  which  would  not  hold  poison  without 
breaking.  It  is  well  known  that  for  a  long 
time  all  vessels  coming  from  the  East  were 
popularly  credited  in  Europe  with  the  same 
astonishing  property,  hence  the  name  of  Porcena's 
ware  or  Porcellena !  What  we  know  is,  that  the 
word  was  used  in  a  general  way  before  being 
restricted  to  translucent  ware. 

Some  doubts  have  been  raised  about  the  intro- 
duction of  Salt-glaze  into  Staffordshire,  and  as  to 
the  making  of  the  white  and  thin  Stone-ware,  to 
which  we  shall  hereafter  devote  one  chapter.  It 
is  all  the  more  interesting  to  know  the  truth  about 
this  question,  as  we  cannot  help  considering 
Salt-glaze,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  Crouch- 
ware,  as  the  most  essentially  English  of  all  the 
potteries  produced  in  England.  Tales  have  been 
circulated  which  attribute  to  a  local  man  the 
invention  of  glazing  with  salt.  They  say  that  an 
earthenware  pot  filled  with  salt  water  was  left  on 
a  kitchen  fire,  and  that  the  brine  boiled  over  the 
sides  of  the  pot,  which  when  cold  was  found  to 
have  been  glazed  by  the  vapours.  Palmer,  of 
Bagnall,  we  are  further  told,  saw  it  and  availed 
himself  of  the  discovery.       It   is   not   possible    to 


134  THE    ELERS 

discuss  seriously  the  probability  of  such  an  incident 
having  ever  occurred,  for  the  silicate  can  only 
be  produced  in  a  closed  oven  heated  to  a  very 
high  temperature,  so  that  stoiy  has  to  be  set 
aside,  to  take  its  place  among  the  many  fanciful 
tales  which  abound  in  ceramic  lore.  In  the 
dialogue  given  by  Ward  in  his  ''History  of 
Stoke-Mpon-Trenty'  we  see  that  the  question  of 
the  Elers  having  been  the  first  to  make  Salt- 
glaze  was  a  common  topic  of  conversation  on 
the  ale  benches.  Much  has  been  done,  we  are 
sorry  to  say,  with  a  view  of  depriving  the 
foreigners  of  what  credit  they  are  entitled  to  for 
laying  down  the  rudiments  of  a  new  art,  which 
was  to  be  the  starting  point  of  all  the  improve- 
ments made  in  the  pottery  of  the  country.  Now 
that  we  are  able  to  look  back  impartially  on  this 
controversy,  we  can  safely  conclude  that  they 
were  not  only  the  creators  of  that  special  process, 
but  also  that  they  must  at  once  have  brought  it 
to  perfection. 

In  favour  of  the  contrary  opinion,  Shaw 
(^''History  of  the  Staffordshire  Potteries'^)  brings 
forward  many  arguments,  all  of  them  far  from 
conclusive.  He  contends  that,  for  a  long  time 
previous,  the  Staffordshire  potters  ought  to  have 
been  acquainted  with  Salt-glazing,  from  the  know- 
ledge they  had  of  what  Dr.  Plot  calls  "  kelp," 
and  describes  as  being  the  "  *  Fucus  Maritimus,* 
which    in    the    Isle  of  Thanet  is  burned  to  ashes, 


THE    ELERS.  135 

put  into  vessels,  and  carried  over  to  Holland, 
with  which  they  glaze  all  their  earthenware." 
Here  Shaw  falls  into  a  rather  ludicrous  mistake 
for  a  chemist.  The  ashes  he  mentions  are  the 
alkalis  used  in  the  composition  of  stanniferous 
enamel,  and  not  at  all  the  salt  employed 
for  the  glazing  of  Stone-ware  by  evaporation. 
He  also  states  that  he  heard  from  the  builders 
who  pulled  down  the  last  of  the  ovens  left  by 
the  ElerSy  that  it  was  a  common  biscuit  oven, 
having  nothing  of  the  appliances  necessary  to 
fire  Salt-glaze.  We  need  hardly  say  that  this 
was  probably  the  one  in  which  they  fired  their 
red-ware ;  the  others,  erected  for  different  pur- 
poses, were,  no  doubt,  demolished  a  long  time 
before,  becoming  useless  when  glazing  with  salt 
was   completely   abandoned. 

Had  any  systematic  digging  been  carried  out 
on  the  Elers  ground,  the  fragments  discovered 
would  at  once  have  settled  the  question.  But 
an  undisputed  fact  remains,  which  goes  far 
towards  proving  that  they  glazed  with  salt,  and 
that  the  practice  was  quite  an  unprecedented 
one  in  the  country.  Aitkins  (''  History  of  Man- 
chester'') relates  that  the  Burslem  potters 
assembled,  eight  in  number,  round  the  Elers 
new  ovens,  to  protest  against  the  volumes  of 
smoke  they  emitted.  What  other  sort  of  firing 
could  have  so  created  smoke  as  to  frighten  the 
natives,    who    by    this    time    ought    certainly    to 


13^  THE    ELERS. 

have  been  used  to  the  smoke  of  their  own  ovens? 
Salt-glazing,  which  was  at  a  later  date  to  darken 
the  streets  of  Burslem  in  such  a  way  as  to  render 
them  all  but  impassable,  could  alone  have  taken 
them  by  surprise.  Mr.  Gatty  quotes  from  Josiah 
Wedgwoods  papers  a  note  written  by  his  own 
hand  in  1765,  containing  the  particulars  supplied 
to  him  by  a  workman  named  Steel,  aged  84, 
who  could  remember  the  Dutchmen  at  work  at 
Bradwell,  and  who  joined  those  who  ran  to  the 
spot,    amazed   at   this   unusual   mode   of  firing. 

Steel  also  states  that  the  Salt-glaze  ware  was 
first  made  by  the  Dutchmen.  This  should  by 
itself  be  a  sufficient  proof.  We  may  add  that 
if  Salt-glazing  had  been  discovered  and  practised 
by  Palmer  in  1680,  Dr.  Plott,  who  wrote  in  1686, 
and  goes  into  such  minute  particulars,  would  not 
have  failed  to  mention  it. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  we  have  so  few 
documents  to  help  us  when  we  endeavour  to 
ascertain  the  truth  about  the  potters  of  that 
time,  but  a  deep  mystery  surrounded  their  re- 
searches and  their  labour  ;  it  seems  as  though 
they  wanted  to  baffle  the  curiosity  of  posterity 
as  well  as  that  of  their  contemporaries.  Bottcher, 
while  experimenting  upon  his  new  bodies,  was 
actually  kept  a  prisoner  in  the  fortress  of 
Koenigstein,  by  the  Elector  of  Saxony.  The 
Elers  seem  to  have  worked  in  the  most  pro- 
found seclusion,  taking  every  precaution  to  prevent 


THE    ELERS.  137 

anyone  from  prying  into  their  secrets,  and  being 
very  particular  about  the  sort  of  people  they  em- 
ployed as  assistants.  Only  those  who  looked  dull 
of  understanding  were  admitted  on  to  the 
premises  ;  to  be  an  idiot  was  a  recommendation 
for  anyone  engaged  to  turn  the  wheel  while 
the  master  was  throwing  the  ware,  or  to 
manipulate  the  clay  which  had  previously  been 
mixed  in  secrecy.  The  goods  when  finished 
were  brought  by  night  from  Brad  well  to  Dims- 
dale,  and  only  at  the  latter  place  were  customers 
allowed  to  enter. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  so  many  pre- 
cautions were  certain  to  excite  curiosity.  Idiots 
were  not  wanting  when  asked  for.  Two  shrewd 
men  took  the  trouble  to  personate  the  character, 
and  through  that  artifice  Astbury  and  Twyford 
succeeded  in  witnessing  all  the  manipulations, 
and  mastering  most  of  the  secrets.  Their  con- 
duct, if  the  tale  of  the  abject  deception  they  kept 
up  for  more  than  two  years  is  true,  is  not  much 
to  their  credit,  but  it  is  fair  to  say  that  Ast- 
bury afterwards  atoned  for  his  duplicity,  and 
redeemed  his  reputation.  Far  from  remaining 
satisfied  with  the  stock  of  knowledge  so  dis- 
honourably acquired,  he  prosecuted  many  experi- 
ments, achieved  many  inventions  of  his  own,  and 
his  name  will  for  ever  be  connected  with  the 
great  discovery  of  the  value  of  fiint  in  the  earth- 
enware body. 


138 


THE    ELERS. 


In  1 710  the  Elers  are  said  to  have  left 
Staffordshire,  and  one  may  well  wonder  why 
they  ever  came  into  such  a  place.  Aliens,  among 
strange  people,  who  had  perhaps  never  seen 
a  foreigner  in  their  lives ;  making  a  secret  of  all 
their  doings,  while  everybody  in  the  trade  was 
working  in  the  light  of  day ;  selling  their  tea- 
pots in  London  at  a  guinea  a-piece,  while  the 
entire  production  of  other  potters  hardly  averaged 
four  pounds  a  week ;  and,  above  all,  retaining 
probably  their  refined  and  aristocratic  manners 
amongst  a  community  who  had,  so  far,  advanced 
but  little  beyond  their  primitive  roughness ; 
jealousy  was  rife  around  them,  and  life  must 
have  been  anything  but  pleasant  under  these 
circumstances.  They  had  indeed,  nothing  to 
do  but  go ;  and  away  they  went,  leaving 
behind  them,  as  at  once  a  pattern  and  a  reproach, 
their  works — a  sure  guide  towards  that  perfection 
which  their  successors  endeavoured  to  attain. 

John  Philip  Elers  gave  up  his  business  in 
reduced  circumstances,  and  on  his  arrival  in 
London  became  connected  with  the  glass  manu- 
factory established  in  Chelsea  in  1676,  by 
Venetians,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham.  So  says  Shaw  (''  Chemistry  of 
Pottery ") ;  no  other  document  has  ever  cor- 
roborated the  assertion,  but  in  our  collection  is 
an  Elers  teapot,  decorated  all  over  with  scrolls 
of    white    and   coloured   enamels  similar   to   those 


THE    ELERS.  139 

which  are  generally  used  in  a  glass  manufactory  ; 
this  curious  specimen  might  perhaps  be  taken  as 
one   of  their   experiments    in   this    new   pursuit. 

We  have  always  spoken  of  the  brothers  jointly 
in  all  we  have  said  concerning  their  life  and  their 
works,  so  adhering  to  tradition,  though  we  be- 
lieve John  Philip  alone  was  the  potter.  At  the 
end  of  their  career  we  find  them  separated. 
Again  we  lose '  sight  of  David,  but  learn  from 
the  particulars  given  to  Josiah  Wedgwood  by 
Edgeworth,  that  John  Philip  went  to  Dublin, 
where,  with  the  assistance  of  Lady  Barrington, 
he  set  up  a  glass  and  china  shop,  and  became 
very  prosperous  in  business.  (Miss  Meteyard's 
^^  Life  of   Wedgwood,'') 

After  their  departure,  the  new  ways  of  potting 
they  had  introduced,  though  kept  up  in  the 
main,  underwent  some  transformations.  Making 
a  compromise  between  the  old  style  and  the  new, 
Astbury  continued  to  apply  ornaments  on  the 
red  clay,  still  impressed  with  small  metal  seals, 
but  he  used  white  clay  to  contrast  them  with 
the  ground,    and   glazed   them  over   with   galena. 

At  Shelton,  where  stood  his  manufactory,  many 
fragments  were  discovered  a  few  years  ago.  They 
are  all  pieces  of  tea  and  coffee  ware,  made  of 
the  fine  red  clay,  richly  glazed  and  ornamented 
with  white  embossments.  Among  the  subjects  are 
the  royal  arms,  the  fieur-de-lys,  or,  more  frequently 
birds   and    flowers,    somewhat    different    in    design 


140 


THE    ELERS. 


from  the  Elers  seals,  and  far  from  equalling  in 
finish  the  perfection  of  the  red  porcelain ;  but 
neatness  of  execution  seems  to  have  given  way  to 
a  desire  for  brightness  of  colour  (Fig.  31).     Various 


Fig.  II.    AsTBURY  Cream  Jug  and  Sweetmeat  Tray  of  Stamped  Ware.— Coll.  L.  S. 


coloured  grounds  are  chosen  to  set  out  the  reliefs  ; 
upon  the  shining  black  clay  run  white  branches  of 
vine  ;  little  yellow  cocks  stand  out  on  the  shining 
rod.       The   red   clay    is   applied    in   the   shape    of 


THE    ELERS.  14^ 

hawthorn  blossoms  upon  the  yellow  or  buff  body, 
the  most  elaborate  and  finely  stamped  specimens 
being  of  a  saffron  yellow  ground,  covered  with 
scrolls  and  leaves  of  great  delicacy.  Sometimes 
we  have  a  would-be  Chinese  figure ;  the  whole 
enlivened  by  touches  of  flowing  and  transparent 
colour,  such  as  are  used  on  the  tortoiseshell- 
ware.  The  handles  and  knobs  are  in  all  cases 
of  the  same  clay  as  the  ornaments,  and  are  still 
made  by  hand. 

For  a  long  time  afterwards  stamping  was 
used  to  complete  the  ware  turned  on  the  wheel, 
whether  it  was  white  Salt-glaze,  or  earthenware  of 
coloured  body,  glazed  with  lead.  Red  porcelain 
was  still  made,  but  how  different  in  quality ! 
We  possess  a  huge  red  teapot  profusely  decorated 
with  branches  and  rosettes  done  by  the  old 
process  ;  it  has  been  silver-mounted,  which  shows 
that  some  value  was  set  upon  it,  yet  it  is  so 
coarse  in  execution  that  it  could  not  stand  com- 
parison with  any  of  the  earlier  pieces.  We 
have  also  an  identical  replica  of  the  small  red 
teapot,  preserved  at  Etruria,  as  the  first  piece 
made  by  Wedgwood  during  his  apprenticeship ; 
but  the  raised  blossoms  spread  upon  it  are  made 
in  the  German  way,  that  is  to  say,  moulded 
separately  and  stuck  on  the  surface,  and  we 
greatly   doubt   its  being   of  English    origin. 

Pottery  becoming  more  popular,  its  makers  took 
advantage  of  all  the  great  events  of  the  time.     A 


142 


THE    ELERS. 


new  sort  of  ware  was  made  to  spread  the  news 
of  a  victory,  or  to  commemorate  its  glory.  In 
1727  Astbury  created  the  Portobello  ware,  which 
had  a  great  run  after  the  expedition  of — 

•*  Admiral  Vernon,  that  brave  fellow  (who) 
Wiih  six  ships  took  Porto-bello." 

Dies  were  sunk  in  the  shape  of  ships,  and  whole 
flotillas  were  stamped  in  white  on  the  red  tea- 
ware.     In    the    British    Museum    is    a    very    fine 


Fig.  3a.    Portobello  Ware.— Mr.  H.  Willett's  Coll. 


bowl  so  decorated.  On  other  pieces  the  full- 
length  figure  of  the  hero  is  represented,  and 
also  a  conventional  view  of  the  fortifications 
(Fig.  32).  Mr.  H.  Willett  has  two  different 
Salt-glaze  teapots  made  in  honour  of  the 
admiral. 

Of  Astbury   and    his   discoveries    a    good    deal 
more     will     be    said    hereafter.      We    have    only 


THE    ELERS.  143 

Spoken  of  him  here  in  connection  with  the 
stamped-ware,  and  as  being  the  worthiest  succes- 
sor of  the  Elers.  Trained  by  the  foreigners, 
but  soon  getting  out  of  the  bounds  of  servile 
imitation,  he  altered  and  improved  their  fabric 
into  one  of  genuine  English  character  in  all  its 
particulars — manufacture   as   well   as   design. 


CHAPTER  VI, 


SALT-GLAZE 


Origin  of  the  White  Stone-Ware  glazed  with  Salt. — Salt- 
Glaze    Ovens    in    Burslem. — The    Glaze   and  its   high 
degree  of  Firing. — Composition  of  the  Body. — Stamped 
Ornaments  and  Brass  Moulds. — Mould  Cutting. — 
Casting. — Introduction  of  Plaster  Moulds. — Ex- 
tension OF  THE  Pottery  Trade  in  Staffordshire. 
— Astbury  and  the  other  leading  Potters  of 
THE  Period. — Variety  of  Shapes  and  their 
Originality. — Different     processes    con- 
nected with  the  Salt-Glaze    Ware. — 
Scratched    Blue. — Competition  with 
THE  German    Ware.  —  Enamelled 
Salt-Glaze.  —  Gilding.  —  Repro- 
duction of  China  pieces  made  in 
Salt-Glaze     Ware. — Tiles. — 
Perforated    Pieces.  —  Lo- 
calities     where      S  alt- 
Glaze  was  Manu- 
factured. 


SALT-GLAZE 


AD  we  to  describe  in  a  few  words  a 
piece  of  the  ware  which  will  make 
the  subject  of  the  present  chapter,  we 
should  say  :  it  is  a  white  earthen 
vessel,  daintily  formed,  delicately  embossed  with 
graceful  arabesques  or  flowers,  and  which  shows, 
under  a  pellucid  glaze,  brightening,  but  not  hiding, 
the  sharpness  of  the  most  minute  details,  a 
semi-transparence  in  the  thinnest  parts  of  its 
substance.  Would  not  the  description  read  as  if 
some  sort  of  Porcelain  was  intended  ?  And  yet 
we  only  applied  it  in  our  mind  to  English  Salt- 
glaze,  the  new  ware  which  was  once  opposed  in 
England  to  the  heavily-made  and  darkly-coloured 
earthenware,  the  brown  stone,  or  the  clumsy  Delft, 
heretofore  the  only  fictile  productions  of  the 
country.  With  this  discovery  the  potters  thought 
for    a    time    that    they    could   compete   with   the 

12 


14^  SALT-GLAZE. 

costly  importations  from  the  East ;  or  at  least, 
if  complete  success  was  not  yet  achieved,  that 
they  were  on  the  eve  of  solving  the  mystery 
.  of  the  Chinese  porcelain,  the  wonder  of  all 
Europe,  a  mystery  so  difficult  to  penetrate  that 
for  some  time  it  was  coupled  with  the  secret  of 
the  philosopher's  stone.  Distant  as  it  was  from 
a  perfect  imitation,  yet  the  success  which  attended 
the  appearance  of  the  first  specimen  of  Salt-glaze 
was  immense,  and  its  use  suddenly  spread  all 
over  the  kingdom. 

In  the  chapter  on  Stone- ware,  a  ware  also 
glazed  with  salt,  we  have  described  the  chemical 
action  of  the  silica  of  the  paste  upon  the  vapours 
of  the  soda  contained  in  the  common  salt,  and 
how  by  means  of  its  evaporation  the  glaze  is 
formed  upon  the  ware.  We  have  also  said  that 
any  clay  refractory  enough  to  stand  the  requisite 
temperature  can  from  ordinary  earthenware  be 
transformed  into  stone-ware,  that  is  to  say,  may 
show  a  commencement  of  vitrification  all  through 
the  texture  of  the  body  ;  a  still  higher  degree  of 
heat  could  even  fuse  it  into  a  glass ;  but  in  this 
case  the  fusion  is  uncontrollable,  and  no  trans- 
parent ware  could  safely  be  made  out  of  it.  This 
was  one  of  Dwight's  difficulties  in  his  experiments 
for  making  Porcelain.  Even  in  the  Potteries, 
when  the  composition  of  the  paste  had  been 
settled  after  protracted  experiments,  too  much  fire 
caused  the  ware   to   melt.      We  have  seen  many 


SALT-GLAZE.  149 

examples  of  cast-away  saggers  with  all  the  pieces 
they  contained  sticking  to  each  other  and  sunk 
at   the   bottom    in    a   shapeless   mass. 

The  glaze  offers  this  peculiarity,  that  it  does 
not  run  and  spread  like  other  glazes,  but  remains 
in  the  state  of  minute  drops  or  granulations  ;  its 
surface  can  be  compared  to  leather  or  orange 
peel.  These  particles  are  more  or  less  con- 
spicuous according  to  the  conditions  of  the  firing. 
Sometimes,  when  red  lead  was  added  to  the  salt, 
the  fluidity  of  the  mixture  makes  them  hardly 
perceptible.  Often  the  gloss  is  unequally  dis- 
tributed over  the  pieces ;  although  the  saggers 
in  which  they  were  enclosed  for  protection  were 
pierced  with  large  holes,  the  vapours  of  soda 
did  not  reach  every  place  in  the  same  propor- 
tion, so  occasionally  one  side  may  be  quite  dry 
while   the   other   is   highly   glazed. 

At  an  early  date  a  sort  of  white-ware  glazed  with 
salt  was  made  in  Germany,  and  thence  probably 
the  process  was  carried  into  England.  We  cannot 
also  doubt  that  Dwight  made  at  Fulham  a  kind  of 
white  Stone- ware  glazed  with  salt.  But  amongst 
the  various  productions  of  other  places  and  other 
times,  nothing  calls  back  to  our  mind  the 
genuine  works  of  the  old  English  Potter;  out 
of  a  process  certainly  known  before  his  days  he 
contrived  to  create  an  original  style  of  pottery, 
for  which  credit  must  be  given  to  him.  We 
have    no    hesitation     in    saying    that,    such    as    it 


150  SALT-GLAZE. 

Stands  now  preserved  in  many  diversified  ex- 
amples in  the  cabinets  of  the  collectors,  the  thin 
**  Salt-glaze,"  or  the  English  white  Stone-ware 
which  is  known  under  that  name,  originated  in 
the  district  where  it  was  so  extensively  manu- 
factured,   viz.,    the  Staffordshire   Potteries. 

We    have    already    stated   upon  what    grounds 
the  introduction  of  the  process  may  be  attributed 
to  John   Philip  Elers ;   at  all   events,  it  was  only 
a   few   years   after   the  brothers  had  settled  down 
at    Bradwell,    and   astonished    the    inhabitants  with 
their    unwonted    way    of    conducting    the     firing, 
that    Salt-glaze   ovens   were   erected    all    over   the 
town    of    Burslem.     It    is  reported   that   so  many 
factories     were    at     work    at    that    time,    that   on 
Saturday   mornings,    when   the  fires  were  at  their 
highest   and  drawing  towards  the  end,   the  smoke 
emitted  was   so   dense   as   to   cause   the  passer-by 
to  grope  his  way,  as  in  the  midst  of  the  thickest 
London    fog,    amongst    fumes   "  not   unlike "    says 
the     author,    **  the     smoke    of   Mount    Vesuvius." 
On      the     scaffolds     that     surrounded     the     oven, 
several   men  stood  opposite  the  apertures  of  each 
of    the    flues,    shovelling   the    salt    into   the   fire ; 
and    every   time    they   fed   the   fiery   mouths,   the 
flames,    driving    away     for    a   moment   the  murky 
smoke,   revealed    to    view    the    men    wrapped   in 
clothes    soaked   with    water,  and    their   faces    pro- 
tected   by  wet  sheets. 

No    marks,    no    dates,    come    to    elucidate   the 


SALT-GLAZE.  1 5  ^ 

problem  of  when  and  by  whom  the  first  pieces 
were  made.  Here  again  we  are  reduced  to 
speculation.  Contradictory  statements  are  in 
existence ;  we  can  dismiss  some  of  them  on 
account  of  their  improbability,  acknowledging  at 
the  same  time  that  something  might  be  learnt 
from  them  if  we  could  only  understand  their 
real  purport,  instead  of  continuing  to  be  misled  by 
the  inappropriate  terms  in  which  they  are  worded. 

When  the  attention  of  collectors  was  first  drawn 
to  these  curious  and  undescribed  pieces,  they  were 
erroneously  called  "  Elizabethan  Ware."  We  have 
now  made  it  clear  that  the  mistake  arose  out  of 
a  jug  of  that  manufacture  being  preserved  in 
Shakespears  House,  at  Stratford,  where  it  had 
been  known  for  a  long  time  by  the  name  of 
**  Shakespear  s  Jug,"  and  which,  probably  made  in 
the  Potteries  towards  the  middle  of  the  last  century, 
had  nothing  in  common  with  the  great  poet. 

We  cannot,  knowing  the  conditions  of  tempera- 
ture required  for  Salt-glazing,  place  any  reliance 
upon  the  tradition  which  attributes  its  discovery 
to  Palmer,  of  Bagnall,  in  1680.  The  tale,  as 
reported  by  several  authors,  says  that  a  servant 
had  left  on  the  fire  a  pot  full  of  salt-water,  and 
that  the  brine  overboiling,  covered  the  outside 
of  the  pot  with  a  bright  glaze ;  a  surprising  fact 
which  the  potter  immediately  turned  to  account, 
and  put  into  practice  in  his  factory.  That  the 
glaze    should    thus    be  formed   in   an   open  place 


152  SALT-GLAZE. 

may  be  considered  an  utter  impossibility,  and 
therefore  this  long-credited  story  can  be  regarded 
as  disposed  of. 

If  it  is  still  a  doubtful  point  whether  the  Elers 
actually  introduced  Salt-glazing  into  Staffordshire, 
we  at  all  events  have  proof  that  this  manufacture 
did  not  prevail  in  the  Potteries  very  early  in  the 
eighteenth  century  after  they  had  left  the  country. 
From  the  perusal  of  the  list  of  the  Burslem 
potters  at  work  between  1710  and  171 5,  we  see 
that  there  were  only  six  ovens  in  the  town  turn- 
ing  out  Stone-ware,  and  even  then  no  special 
mention  is  made  of  its  being  glazed  with  salt  ; 
not  one  potter  was  making  Stone-ware  of  any 
sort   in    Hanley. 

It  is  probable  that  it  was  only  about  that 
time  the  Staffordshire  potters  began  to  make  a 
fire-resisting  body  which  could  stand  the  required 
temperature,  by  mixing  the  whitish  clay  found  at 
Shelton  with  the  fine  sand  of  Baddeley  Edge, 
or  else  the  cane  marl  with  the  grit  from  Mow 
Cop.  To  these  materials  were  also  added,  before 
the  discovery  of  flint,  the  white  clay  employed  by 
the  pipemakers,  and  with  which  were  made  the 
first  experiments  for  a  white  ware.  Pipes  had 
been  manufactured  at  Newcastle-under-Lyme,  as 
well  as  in  many  other  places,  years  before  Dr. 
Plot  visited  the  Potteries ;  he  describes  how 
Charles  Riggs,  of  Newcastle,  made  them  of 
three   different   sorts   of  clays,    the   best   of  which 


SALT-GLAZE.  153 

was  found  between  Shelton  and  Hanley  Green. 
Many  of  these  pipes,  impressed  with  the  initials 
of  the  maker,  have  been  from  time  to  time 
dug  up  in  quantities ;  and  as  they  are  quite 
white  and  well  fired,  surprise  might  be  felt  that 
the  same  material  had  not  been  turned  into  good 
account  for  the  making  of  pots.  The  reason  is 
that  the  lead  ore  then  used  for  glazing  did  not 
allow  of  any  glazed  white  ware  being  made,  as 
it  turned  the  whitest  biscuit  to  a  dingy  yellow 
tint ;  but  as  soon  as  the  colourless  glaze  obtained 
with  salt  was  discovered,  pipe-clay  became  the 
basis   of  many    new   compounds. 

In  the  Potteries  district  no  materials  were 
employed  at  first  but  those  procured  on  the  spot ; 
with  the  marl,  the  clays  from  the  coal  measures, 
and  the  sand  also  found  in  the  locality,  they 
made  the  "buff"  ware;  for  white  ware  they  had 
the  pipe-clay  and  the  grit  excavated  from  the 
Mow  Cop  strata  ;  the  requisite  salt  was  obtained 
from  the  neighbouring  mines ;  thus  it  can  fairly 
be  called  a  genuine  Staffordshire  production. 
We  shall  hereafter  show  how  its  shapes  and 
decorations  may  also  set  up  an  unquestionable 
claim   to    indigenous  originality. 

We  have  all  reasons  to  suppose  that  a  "buff" 
body  was  first  attempted  with  the  same  clay  as 
had  been  employed  long  before  for  common 
stone  pots,  and  that  the  use  of  white  pipe-clay 
was    then    confined    to    such    small    raised   orna- 


1 54  SALT-GLAZE. 

ments  as  were  sparingly  applied  on  the  surface ; 
the  ware  did  not  become  quite  white  until  it 
had  passed  through  many  successive  improve- 
ments all  aiming  in  that  direction.  The  earliest 
kind  was  of  a  greenish  tint,  and  was  called 
**  Crouch- ware."  That  term,  which  has  puzzled 
more  than  one,  comes  from  the  name  of  the 
white  Derbyshire  clay ;  long  before  being  used 
for  Salt-glaze,  it  had  been  employed  at  Notting- 
ham to  make  crucibles  and  glass  pots,  and  under 


Fig.  33.    Salt-glaze  with  Elers  Ornaments.— Coll.  L.  S. 

the  name  of  "  Crouch  clay "  it  figures  in  several 
old   documents. 

Most  of  the  early  pieces  bear  such  a  striking 
resemblance  to  the  red  porcelain  of  the  Elers^  in 
potting  as  well  as  in  ornamentation,  that  it  is 
difficult  not  to  ascribe  the  same  origin  to  both 
wares  (Fig.  33). 

The  Crouch-ware   is   of  a   dense  paste  ;   if   not 


SALT-GLAZE.  155 

quite  so  hard  as  the  red  porcelain,  it  is  because 
the  ferric  oxide  contained  in  the  latter  increases 
its  vitreousness.  The  shapes,  neatly  formed,  are 
equally  well  finished  on  the  lathe  ;  and  a  pressed 
part  is  never  added  to  them,  excepting  perhaps 
occasional  feet  or  claws,  impressed  in  the  ''pitcher" 
moulds  of  one  single  piece,  which  went  by  the 
name  of  "  thumb  moulds." 

In  his  MS.  notes,  Josiah  Wedgwood  relates  that 
the  Elers  introduced  moulds  of  plaster  of  Pr.ris. 
We  cannot  implicitly  trust  this  assertion,  as  it  is 
not  corroborated  by  any  known  example  ;  on  the 
contrary,  from  all  the  specimens  that  have  come 
under  our  notice,  and  other  collateral  proofs,  we 
can  deduce  the  fact  that  they  did  not  employ  any 
moulds,  either  of  plaster  or  terra  cotta ;  they 
stamped  on  and  did  not  press  separately  the 
applied  ornaments,  differing  in  this  particular  from 
Dwight,  who  worked  by  the  latter  process.  We 
find  in  his  notes  mention  of  a  "grey  clay  to  be 
*  spriged '  with  white  ;  "  the  term  is  still  used  in 
our  days,  and  means  to  stick  on  the  surface  the 
relief  taken  out  of  a  mould.  We  shall  insist 
upon  the  point  that  in  the  Elers  ware  all  the 
ornaments  are  stamped  on  the  piece  itself  with 
small  metal  seals,  as  can  be  ascertained  by  the 
traces  of  the  impression  of  the  die,  the  square 
ground  of  which  is  sunk  in  the  clay  round  the 
raised  subjects.  Made  in  this  way,  we  have 
many   remarkable   pieces   of    buff  colour,    relieved 


15^  SALT-GLAZE. 

by  rosettes  and  entwined  lines  of  white  clay,  not 
unlike  in  design  the  typographic  ornaments  of  the 
period.  The  forms  are  finely  turned  and  finished, 
and  seldom  show  any  defect,  but  the  raised 
parts  have  cracked  in  many  places,  as  though  the 
difficulty  of  making  the  two  clays  agree  together 
had  not  yet  been  completely  mastered.  Enoch 
Wood  s  collection  was  especially  rich  in  specimens 
of  this  ware,  now  so  difficult  to  obtain,  and  that 
fact  tends  to  prove  that  it  was  made  in  the 
Potteries.  Pieces  of  the  same  description  are 
also  found  having  a  wash  of  white  clay  in  the 
inside,  or  even  made  entirely  of  the  white  body  ; 
these  may  safely  be  attributed  to  the  successors 
of  the  Elers,  who  continued  to  work  in  their 
style  long  after  the  Dutchmen  had  left  the 
country. 

As  the  new  ware  was  especially  admired  on 
account  of  its  thinness  and  delicacy,  all  efforts 
were  made  to  insure  and  increase  these  qualities  ; 
spoons,  sauce  boats,  and  small  trays  were  manu- 
factured as  light  as  wafers,  by  means  of  copper 
or  lead  moulds,  which  acted  like  our  goffering 
irons,  impressing  them  at  one  blow  on  the  outer 
and  inner  surfaces  (Fig.  34).  The  notion  of  such 
moulds  was  no  doubt  derived  from  the  usual  brass 
seals ;  they  have  now  become  very  scarce,  yet 
some  of  them  are  preserved  in  the  Geological 
Museum  and  in  the  Hanley  Institute.  But  the 
use   of  copper  moulds  was   limited   to  very   small 


SALT-GLAZE. 


157 


pieces,  and  additional  means  had  to  be  resorted 
to,  such  as  casting  and  pressing.  Pieces  of 
large  dimensions  had  to  be  cast  in  "  pitcher "  or 
terra-cotta  moulds. 

Here  we  shall  describe  the  peculiar  process  by 
which  models  and  moulds  were  made  ;  instead  of 
modelling  the  form  in  relief  as  we  should  now-a- 
days,    it   was   hollowed    out   of    several    pieces   of 


Fig.  34.    Small  Tray,  stampbd  in  a  brass  mould. — Coll.  L.  S. 


native  g)'psum,  which  formed  the  different  sections 
of  the  intended  mould  ;  after  they  had  been 
graven  and  sunk  with  complicated  patterns  of 
flowers  and  scrolls,  a  proof  was  taken,  and,  being 
fired  in  the  oven,  it  became  what  was  called  the 
**  block ; "  upon  this  block  an  unlimited  number 
of  clay  moulds  could  be  made,  all  of  which 
preserved    the    sharpness    of    the    original    work. 


158  SALT-GLAZE. 

Sometimes  they  were  fired,  thus  becoming  prac- 
tically indestructible,  but  often  the  clay  was  only 
dried.  An  old  workman  of  Hanley  was,  a  few 
years  ago,  still  casting  very  neat  pieces  in  moulds 
of  dry  clay,  by  what  he  called  the  old  process. 
Many  of  the  old  routine  ways  have  long  con- 
tinued in  the  Potteries,  and  have  outlived  the 
new-fangled  fashions  which  successively  gave  way 
to  one  another ;  consequently,  from  the  mere 
make  of  a  particular  specimen,  to  fix  the  period 
to  which  it  belongs  is  often  a  matter  of  guess- 
work, and  in  the  absence  of  an  inscribed  date, 
never  goes  beyond  mere  probability.  We  possess 
an  earthenware  cream  jug,  the  form  of  which  is 
divided  in  eight  compartments,  with  embossed 
subjects.  The  mould  was  constructed  on  the 
old  system, '  and  the  piece,  thinly  cast  and  not 
pressed,  has  all  the  characteristics  of  an  early 
specimen ;  the  little  figures,  very  numerous  and 
varied,  are  as  sharp  in  detail  and  quaint  in  design 
as  on  the  finest  models  of  Salt-glaze,  and  the 
whole  is  touched  up  with  tortoiseshell  colours. 
Two  initials,  "  H.  R.,"  are  scratched  under  the 
bottom,  and  the  top  has  the  name  of  ''John 
Lucas "  painted  in  blue.  This  shows  the  jug  to 
be  a  presentation  piece,  and  we  may  take  it  to 
be  the  work  of  an  old  workman,  who  was  pleased 
to  revive  for  once  the  best  fashions  of  his  younger 
days  ;  otherwise,  were  we  to  consider  it  a  regular 
production  of  the  period,   when  finding  it,   to  our 


SALT-GLAZE. 


159 


amazement,  dated  as  late  as  1790,  nothing  would 
remain  for  the  collector  but  to  declare  his  utter 
incapability  to  distinguish  such  ware  from  what 
was  manufactured  in  the  beginning  of  the  same 
century. 

By  examining  the  style  of  embossments  of  the 
Salt-glaze  ware,  we  perceive  at  once  how  well  the 


Fig.  35.    Salt-glaze  Shell  Tea-fot.— Colu  L.  S. 


decoration  is  contrived  to  allow  of  its  being  con- 
veniently carved  in  the  hollow  shell  of  the  mould  ; 
each  section  has  a  separate  subject,  and  the  seams 
existing  between  the  sections,  which  are  the  great 
trouble  of  the  potter,  who  vainly  tries  to  conceal 
them  by  any  other  means,  have  been  made  use 
of  in  the  composition  as  partition  lines  which 
divide  it  into  panels.      The  subjects  were  always 


1 60  SALT-GLAZE. 

selected  with  the  view  of  affording  the  greatest 
facility  of  execution.  For  instance,  the  **  mould 
cutters,"  as  they  were  called,  found  the  *'  pecten  " 
shell,  with  its  many  ribs,  especially  appropriate  to 
their  style  of  carving,  so  they  brought  it  to  bear 
in  an  endless  variety  of  combinations,  and  with  it 
are  associated  such  small  foliage  and  lines  as  can  be 
conveniently  engraved  in  the  mould  with  a  single 
stroke  of  the  gouge  (Fig.  35).  When  a  piece  was 
intended  to  be  produced  by  casting,  the  model 
was  seldom  made  of  a  round  shape ;  for  these 
latter,  turning,  with  application  of  stamped  orna- 
ments, was  generally  preferred ;  for  a  cast  piece, 
pentagonal  and  lobed  shapes  were  contrived,  and 
the  seams  of  the  moulds  in  such  cases  were,  as 
we  have  already  remarked,  used  to  divide  the 
sections  from  each  other  by  a  raised  line.  It 
has  been  advanced  that  the  earliest  models  were 
taken  from  silver  plate  pieces.  The  fact  is  patent 
with  respect  to  some  of  the  china  made  at  Bow, 
Chelsea,  and  Worcester,  but  does  not  apply  to 
Salt-glaze  ware.  This  had  a  style  of  its  own, 
which  in  no  way  recalls  the  "repoussd"  or  chased 
work  of  the  silversmiths,  and  the  likeness  they 
show  to  some  old  silver  plate  does  not  go 
beyond  the  general  appearance  which  appertains 
to  all  works  of  contemporary  times. 

In  the  "pitcher"  moulds  the  ware  was  not 
pressed,  but  cast  ;  the  process  of  casting  consisted 
in  filling  the  mould  with  diluted  clay  or  slip,  then 


SALT-GLAZE.  l6l 

pouring  It  out,  leaving  a  thin  coat  of  clay  on  the 
surface ;  as  soon  as  it  began  to  dry  the  opera- 
tion was  repeated,  and  each  time  the  coating 
increased  in  thickness.  When  the  required 
strength  had  been  obtained  the  whole  was  placed 
before  the  fire,  and  by  desiccation  the  piece 
separated  from  the  mould  ;  it  was  then  ready  to 
be  garnished  with  the  handles,  spouts,  or  claws, 
which  had  been  separately  cast  in  the  same  way. 
The  pieces  made  in  "  terra  cotta "  or  brass 
moulds  are  the  most  ancient,  and  are  far  superior, 
in  sharpness  of  detail  and  style  of  execution,  to 
the  comparatively  modern  ones  cast  in  plaster 
moulds.  These  latter  were  easily  deteriorated,  and 
as  they  were  still  used  after  having  been  quite 
worn  out,  very  poor  stuff  was  produced  as  soon 
as  they  superseded  the  *' pitcher"  moulds.  It 
was  not  until  1750  that  Ralph  Da7iiel,  of 
Burslem,  brought  back,  from  a  porcelain  manu- 
factory he  had  visited  in  France,  the  first  mould 
in  plaster  of  Paris ;  the  innovation  was  adopted 
at  once  by  the  other  potters  of  his  town,  and  it 
afforded  great  facilities  for  quickness  of  production, 
but  often  at  the  expense  of  neatness  and  quality. 
At  the  same  date  **  pressing,"  that  is  to  say, 
moulding  with  a  thick  lump  of  clay,  began  to 
be  substituted  for  casting,  and  the  daintily  em- 
bossed  pieces    soon   disappeared   altogether. 

But  to   return   to    the  introduction  of  Salt-glaze 
into   the    Potteries,    and  the  influence  it  had  upon 


l62 


SALT-GLAZE. 


the  general  trade  of  the  country,  we  must  once 
more  call  to  mind  the  fact  that  pottery  in  that 
district  had  so  far  been  only  a  modest  craft,  by 
which  the  master  could  in  his  single  thatched 
hovel  average  only  a  produce  of  the  value  of 
four  or  five  pounds  a  week,  out  of  which  all 
expenses  had  to  be  paid.  Several  common  hands 
were    employed     at    each    place ;     but    the    best 


\!\!MII\U')illLllll'i:''nm^^^^ 
Fig.  36.    Early  Salt-giaot  Tea-poy.— Ladv  Schreiber's  Cotx. 


workman  who  could  throw,  turn,  and  handle, 
had  to  divide  his  time,  and  work  for  two  or 
three   factories   in   the   same    week. 

The  effect  of  the  introduction  of  this  new 
white  ware  was  to  turn  a  small  trade  into  a 
large  industry.  The  one  oven  of  each  potter 
had    to   be   increased    in   size,    the   small   quantity 


SALT-GLAZE. 


163 


of  goods  that  could  be  turned  out  of  it  could 
no  longer  answer  the  demand,  and  soon,  to 
the  astonishment  of  the  inhabitants  of  Shelton, 
R,  &  J,  Baddeley  erected  four  ovens  in  a  row 
behind  their  manufactory.  Instead  of  being 
limited  to  the  precarious  dealings  carried  on  with 
the  adjoining  counties,  the  ware  began  to  be 
carted  away  to  all  parts  of  England.  Business 
connections    were   established    with    distant   towns. 


Fig.  37.    Salt-glazk  Tea-pot.— Colu  L.  S. 

Travellers    were   sent   off  with   a   load   of  goods, 

to    sell    the    stock   and   take    further   orders  ;   but 

the     way    of    trading    was    still     very    primitive. 

**  When    they    came    home,"    says     Shaw,    "  after 

having      disposed     of    their     ware,     they     simply 

emptied  the  money   bag    of  its   contents,    without 

rendering  any   account   of  their   transactions." 

Notwithstanding  the  cheapness  of  labour  at  the 

time,  the  care  bestowed   upon  these  delicate  little 
13 


1^4     "  SALT-GLAZE.      '• 

pieces  made  them  rather  expensive  in  comparison 
with  the  common  earthen  pots,  and  we  think 
that  Salt-glaze  remained  for  a  long  time  the 
highest  class  of  ware,  and  was  paid  for  accord- 
ingly. Nothing  can  excel  in  delicacy  some  of 
the  diminutive  four-lobed  teapots,  resting  on  three 
minute  claws  and  embossed  all  over  with  shells, 
oak  leaves,  and  acorns  (Fig.  37).  Evidently 
destined  as  a  present  to  a  lady  of  taste  and 
refinement,  it  is  difficult  to  decide  whether  they 
can  be  called  toys,  gimcracks,  or  teapots.  Though 
the  size  of  the  ovens  had  been  enlarged,  and 
the  weekly  production  greatly  increased,  little  of 
it  was  kept  for  home  use,  but  the  ware  was 
sent  away  to  be  sold  everywhere  to  well-to-do 
people.  In  my  experience  of  old  pot  hunting  in 
Staffordshire,  I  have  hardly  found  any  Salt-glaze 
pieces  in  the  cottages ;  all  I  have  gathered 
together,  though  mostly  manufactured  in  the 
Potteries,  came  from  other  counties.  I  may, 
however,  say  that  they  stood  more  chances  of 
being  destroyed  than  any  other  ware,  being  so 
fragile,  and  liable  to  break  in  hot  water.  An 
immense  quantity  must  have  been  exported  into 
Holland ;  it  is  now  returned  to  us  by  the  Dutch 
dealers ;  and,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  it  is  from 
that  source  that  the  best  specimens  have  come  to 
enrich  the   English  collections. 

Astbury    and    Twyford   took    the    lead    in    the 
manufacture   of    Salt-glaze,    the    former   employing 


SALT-GLAZE.  16$ 

the  Bideford  pipe-clay  and  the  Devon  and  Dorset 
clays,  which,  from  the  ports  whence  they  were 
obtained,  were  called  Chester  clays.  They  there- 
fore departed  from  the  custom  of  using  local 
materials  only.  Astbury  washed  with  these  clays 
the  inner  surface  of  his  buff  Stone-ware,  and  with 
them  made  also  a  white  stone  body,  which  he 
still  further  improved  by  making  ground  flint  the 
principal  ingredient  of  it,  an  invention  to  which 
we   shall   have   hereafter   to   refer   more  amply. 


Fig.  38.    Ralfh  Shaw  Wa«k.— Com..  L.  S. 

Thomas  Billing,  in  1722,  took  out  a  patent  '*for 
making  the  most  refined  earthenware,  of  a  nature 
and  composition  not  only  transparent,  but  so 
perfect  in  its  kind  as,  contrary  to  the  nature  of 
all  other  earthenwares,  to  resist  almost  any  degree 
of  heat"  The  specification  of  transparency  here 
indicates  a  sort  of  Salt-glaze,  while  the  inventor 
was  trying  to  overcome  the  objection  put  forth 
against  its  general  use.  by  boasting,  like  many 
others,  of  having  found  the  means  of  remedying 
that   imperfection. 


1 66  SALT-GLAZE. 

Ralph  ShaWy  of  Burslem,  took  out  a  patent, 
in  1732,  for  a  chocolate  ware,  which  was  white 
inside,  and  the  upper  surface  of  which  was 
covered  with  alternate  coats  of  brown  and  white, 
scratched  in  with  lines  and  flowers.  The  inven- 
tion was  applied  to  Stone-ware  glazed  with  salt  ; 
we  give  (Fig.  38)  a  sketch  of  a  bowl  of  that 
ware,  now  become  exceedingly  scarce.  We  shall 
have  occasion  to  refer  to  him  more  fully  in  the 
next  chapter. 

Dr.  Thomas  Wedgwood  was  the  principal  potter 
of  Burslem  at  that  time,  making  various  kinds  of 
ware  besides  Salt-glaze.  To  him,  in  1731,  was 
apprenticed  Aaron  Wood,  who  attained  to  the 
greatest  reputation  as  *'  block  cutter  and  mould 
maker,"  and  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  working  in 
a  room  by  himself,  where  he  remained  locked  up 
all  the  day  by  his  employer.  He  was  to  work 
for  no  one  else  but  his  present  master,  and  the 
master  in  his  turn  promises  in  his  agreement  that 
he  will  ''employe  him  in,  but  himself  only." 
Some  of  the  moulds  made  by  A,  Wood  have 
been  preserved,  and  bear  his  name  scratched  in 
the  paste ;  one  of  them  is  in  the  South  Kensing- 
ton  Museum. 

Thomas  &  John  Wedgwood  established  them- 
selves at  Burslem  as  makers  of  white  Stone-ware 
before  1740,  and  introduced  many  improvements 
in  its  manufacture  by  experimenting  on  the 
liability    of    the    various   clays    to   crack    or   break 


SALT-GLAZE.  1 67 

in  the  firing.  Their  enterprising  spirit  was  gene- 
rally censured,  and  considered  little  short  of 
extravagance.  They  erected  a  spacious  manu- 
factory covered  with  tiles,  while  all  the  others 
were  still  covered  with  thatch,  and  they  had 
three   ovens   built   on    their    premises. 

The  brothers  Baddeley,  who  at  the  same  time 
had  four  ovens  erected  in  a  row  behind  their 
workshops,  made  elegant  white  Stone-ware,  in- 
cluding fruit  baskets,  and  bread  or  sweet  trays, 
cast  in  moulds,  and  exhibiting  ornaments  on  both 
sides. 

Aaron  Wood  and  William  Littler,  employing 
for  the  first  time  the  oxide  of  cobalt  as  a  ground, 
made  the  first  blue  Salt-glaze,  which  was  said  to 
resemble  the  finest  "  lapis  lazuli'' 

Many  other  names  might  be  added  to  this  list, 
but  the  above  are  sufificient  to  show  how  the 
potters  tried  to  rival  each  other,  and  bring  out 
some  improvement  of  their  own  in  their  speciali- 
ties. Unfortunately,  however  varied  and  distinct 
the  specimens  are,  very  few  of  them  can  safely 
be  attributed  to  any  of  these  makers  in  particular, 
so  little  care  has  been  taken  to  preserve  the 
traditions  by  which  not  long  ago  many  might 
have   been   identified. 

The  imagination  of  the  Staffordshire  "  block 
cutters "  was  very  fertile  in  quaint  devices  ;  for 
instance,  in  the  case  of  simple  tea-pots,  they  seem 
to  have  exhausted  every  conceivable  shape.     We 


1 68  SALT-GLAZE. 

have  tea-pots  that  are  globular,  elliptic,  octagonal, 
square,  and  oblong ;  others  that  are  formed  like 
two  or  more  shells  ;  and  others  again  that  are 
heart-shaped.  All  sorts  of  animals  or  figures  are 
used ;  a  squirrel,  or  a  bird,  a  bear  with  its  cub, 
and  a  Bacchus  astride  on  his  cask.  This  last 
was  probably  made  by,  or  for,  TJiomas  Bacchus^ 
of  Lane  End,  a  potter,  who  married  Astburys 
widow. 

New  shapes  were  required  to  set  forth  In  all 
its  originality  the  new  Salt-glaze  ware,  which  was 
from  the  first  manufactured  with  materials  so 
different  from  those  which  had  been  used  before  ; 
public  taste  soon  got  tired  of  globular  shapes 
turned  on  the  wheel,  and  having  a  uniform 
profile,  either  left  plain  or  insufficiently  diversified 
by  applIcatIon3  of  meagre  flowers  or  leaves.  The 
secret  of  the  manufacture  of  white  ware  could  not 
long  be  kept  amongst  a  few,  but  soon  became 
public  property,  and  the  competing  potters  had 
to  exercise  their  wits  in  bringing  out  striking 
novelties,  endeavouring  in  that  way  to  outdo 
each  other.  The  imagination  of  modellers  on 
their  mettle  gave  vent  to  all  sorts  of  inventions, 
verging  sometimes  on  extravagance,  and  the 
process  of  casting  lately  introduced  permitted 
them  to  execute  their  most  complicated  con- 
ceptions. There  was  no  natural  object,  no 
impracticable  representation  of  animal  or  figure 
that   was    not    thought    fit    to    be    turned   into   a 


SALT-GLAZE. 


169 


tea-pot.  A  camel,  for  instance,  could  not  at  first 
sight  be  considered  a  very  promising  subject  for 
that  purpose.  Perhaps  on  this  account  it  was 
often  preferred,  and  the  difficulties  surmounted  in 
different  ways.  Sometimes  the  camel  is  repre- 
sented in  its  naturalistic  shape,  or  else  the  model 
combines  in  a  highly  conventional  style  the  ribs 
of  the  shell  pattern  with  the  general  outlines  of 
the   kneeling   animal    (Fig.    39).       We    know    not 


Fig.  39.    Camel  Tea-pot.— Willett  Coll. 


fewer  than  five  different  shapes  of  these  camel 
tea-pots.  When  squirrels,  bears,  cats,  and  other 
animals  were  intended,  they  were  in  all  cases 
made  ornamental  with  scrolls  or  flowers  embossed 
all  over,  thus  avoiding  the  ludicrous  effect  always 
evinced  by  a  too   realistic   production   (Fig.   40). 

Large  numbers  of  Salt-glaze  tea-pots  were  made 
in    the   shape   of  a   house,   sometimes   having   the 


170  salt-glaze.  • 

royal  arms  over  the  door,  and  a  sentry  on  each 
side,  but  more  frequently  reproducing  some  private 
dwelling.  Considering  how  proud  a  man  is  when 
he  builds  a  house  of  his  own,  and  how  every  allu- 
sion to  the  subject  pleasantly  tickles  his  vanity, 
may  not  such  a  piece  have  been  thought  an 
appropriate  present  to  offer  to  a  friend  on  such 
an  occasion  ?     What  gives  weight  to  our  supposi- 


FiG.  40.    Squirrel  Tea-pot.— Coll.  L.  S. 

tlon  with  regard  to  these  numerous  tea-pots  is, 
that  they  are  never  made  to  represent  a  curious 
building,  or  an  ambitious  palace,  but  the  square 
and  common-place  home  of  a  well-to-do  English- 
man. 

Without  asserting  that  every  Staffordshire  tea- 
pot was  intended  to  convey  a  special  meaning, 
we  must  admit,  from  many  examples,  that  people 


SALT-GLAZE.  I  7 1 

in  olden  times  were  often  prompted  to  embody 
their  thouo^hts  in  a  tangible  shape — what  they 
could  not  write  they  expressed  in  a  graphic  form. 
Lovers  offered  to  each  other  a  symbolical  tea-pot 
in  the  shape  of  a  heart  ;  for  the  man  of  politics 
there  was  the  tea-pot  commemorating  a  successful 
election,  or  a  great  victory  like  the  taking  of 
Portobello  by  Admiral  Vernon  ;  and  we  are  not 
at  all  sure  that  the  Bacchus  tea-pot  was  not  a 
sarcastic  present  to  an  habitual  drunkard,  fore- 
stalling in  this  forcible  way  the  teachings  of 
*' teetotalism." 

Sometimes  the  artist  gives  vent  to  his  fancy, 
and  models  by  hand  a  little  group,  which  will  not 
be  reproduced.  Such  is  the  interesting  example 
in  Mr.  Willett's  collection,  of  a  lady  seated  in 
the  church  pew  with  her  two  grown  up  sons 
by  her  side,  or  the  quaint  group  of  two  figures 
we  have  etched  for  our  first  edition. 

It  is  surprising  to  find  such  a  piece  as  this 
last  one,  evidently  the  fruit  of  a  whimsical 
imagination,  to  which  no  special  purpose  can  be 
attributed,  made  at  a  time  when  modelling  was 
confined  to  the  raised  ornaments  which  were 
sparingly  used  to  complete  smoothly-turned  shapes, 
and  when  fancy  could  only  exercise  itself  on  the 
commonest  articles  of  daily  use.  We  may  ask 
ourselves  whether  this  dignified  lady  and  gentle- 
man, attired  in  their  Sunday  clothes,  and  resting 
upon    their    homely    settle,    are    the    portraits    of 


172  SALT-GLAZE. 

"the  Squire  and  his  wife,"  or  merely  the  fanciful 
creation  of  the  maker's  inventive  mind  ?  If  the 
latter,  the  choice  of  the  subject  may  be  said  to 
be  quite  on  a  level  with  its  primitive  execution, 
and  the  style  of  modelling  had  indeed  to  undergo 
a  great  and  rapid  change  before  the  modellers  of 
the  Potteries  could  produce  the  varied,  Ingenious, 
and  clever  figures  which  were  made  a  few  years 
afterwards. 

We  can  see  by  the  awkwardness  of  this  group 
that  it  was  not  a  common  practice  at  that  time 
to  turn  out  a  work  of  this  kind ;  the  costumes 
of  the  figures  refer  it  to  the  period  of  slip  dishes, 
and  it  suggests  to  us  the  idea  of  Thomas  Toft 
trying  his  hand  at  sculpture. 

Perhaps  the  best  representative  piece  of  the 
Salt-glaze  fabrication,  the  one  where  the  qualities 
and  faults  of  the  ware  are  the  most  forcibly  ex- 
emplified, is  the  large  mug  engraved  in  the  first 
edition  of  this  work  ;  one  copy  of  the  same  mug 
was  found  with  the  other  pieces  discovered  in 
the  old  Fulham  Works,  and  for  that  reason  had 
been  by  some  considered  as  being  of  Dwigkfs 
manufacture.  Such  an  example  is  sufficient  to 
make  us  understand  how  deceptive  a  style  of 
ornamentation  may  prove  if,  by  it  alone,  we  try 
to  determine  the  age  of  a  piece  of  earthenware ! 
Looking  at  the  profusion  of  uncouth  birds,  rep- 
tiles, and  quadrupeds  spread  all  over  the  sides 
of  this   mug,   and   the  stiff  border  of  nondescript 


SALT-GLAZE.  173 

flowers  arranged  on  its  base,  we  could  not  help 
surmising  that  they  had  been  inspired  by  the 
illumination  of  some  mediaeval  MS.,  and  that 
the  quaint  work  was  contemporaneous  with  the 
old  missals  ;  yet,  in  the  centre  has  been  repro- 
duced a  comparatively  modern  picture  by  Hogarth; 
its  tide,  **  Midnight  Conversation,"  has  been  en- 
graved underneath,  to  prevent  any  doubt  in  that 
respect.  The  modeller  was  at  no  pains  to  modify 
his  Gothic  manner  when  engaged  in  imitating  the 
principal  features  of  the  well-known  composition  ; 
it  is  a  free  and  easy  adaptation,  and  all  the 
personages,  notwithstanding  their  periwigs  and 
tobacco  pipes,  have  a  decidedly  Byzantine  ap- 
pearance. Could  such  primitive-looking  images 
have  been  perpetrated  in  London  after  1750,  the 
date  of  the  publication  of  Hogarth's  engraving, 
where  artists  lived  surrounded  by  the  best  works 
of  the  time  ? 

It  can  for  several  reasons  be  attributed  to 
Staffordshire  ;  the  ware  is  exactly  similar  to  the 
Salt-glaze  of  the  Potteries  ;  the  subject  was 
there  at  the  time  a  favourite  one.  In  the  Stoke 
Museum  may  be  seen  a  large  cream-coloured 
punch  bowl,  decorated  over  the  glaze  with  the 
same  **  Midnight  Conversation,"  still  an  adaptation 
of  the  original,  though  painted  in  a  less  barbarous 
manner.  But  the  last  proof  in  support  of  our 
supposition  is  the  most  decisive ;  it  is  the  pre- 
sence on   the   piece   of  four   coats   of  arms,    three 


174 


salt-glaze; 


of  them  belonging  to  Staffordshire  families. 
Hales,  baronet,  Leveson-Gower^  Vaney  and  Bertie, 
Another  Salt-glaze  mug  of  the  same  shape  and 
size,  but  with  a  different  decoration,  has  in 
addition  to  the  four  escutcheons  named  above, 
the  cognizances  of  two  other  families,  also 
connected  with  Staffordshire,  Whorewood  and 
Granville,  This  is  in  Mr.  Willett's  collection. 
Unlike    the    German    Stone-ware    which    displays 


Fig.  41.     Salt-glaze  Cup. — Coll.   L. 


such  an  abundance  of  escutcheons  that  a  whole 
armory  is  to  be  found  on  Rhenish  Ceramics, 
very  seldom  does  the  white  Stone-ware  of  Eng- 
land offer  any  coat  of  arms,  mottoes,  or  devices 
belonging  to  the  nobility  of  the  manufacturing 
counties ;  the  potter  does  not  seem  to  have  ever 
courted  their  patronage.  However  we  give  here 
(Fig.  41)  another  of  the  rare  exceptions  to  that 
rule ;   it  is  a  cup  of  the  early  period,   which   has. 


SALT-GLAZE.  175 

besides   the    Royal    arms,    those  of    Warwick   and 
Leveson  Gower. 

Tea-ware,  sauce-boats,  sweetmeat  and  pickle 
trays,  and  such  minute  articles  were  the  first 
productions  of  the  improving  Potteries,  and  very 
great  skill  was  displayed  upon  the  models.  We 
shall  mention,  as  an  example,  the  remarkable 
sauce-boat  belonging  to  Professor  A.  Church, 
upon  which  the  Seven  Champions  of  Christendom 
are  elaborately  represented.  Purely  ornamental 
pieces    soon   after  began  to  be  manufactured,  such 


Fig.  43.    Early  Salt^lazs  Saucs*boat.— Hanley  Ikstitutb. 

as  spill  vases,  flower  pots,  and  hanging  brackets, 
but  in  no  case  do  they  exhibit  any  attempt  to 
imitate  a  foreign  model.  They  are,  on  the  con- 
trary, striking  instances  of  what  can  be  done 
with  an  art  which,  born  on  the  soil,  there 
gradually  develops  itself  without  any  extraneous 
assistance.  Table-ware  was  only  attempted  much 
later  on ;  even  at  the  Worcester  China  Manu- 
factory they  avoided  in  the  first  years  making 
anything   of  large  size,    and   some   contemporaries 


1 76  SALT-GLAZE. 

expressed  their  astonishment  at  the  want  of 
enterprise  of  the  English  china  makers,  who 
had  not  so  far  tried  to  compete  with  the  plates 
and  dishes  imported  from  the  East,  the  only 
ones  that  could  then  be  obtained  for  dinner 
services. 

Amongst  the  pieces  of  the  late  period  can 
be  ranged  the  soup  tureens,  one  of  which  is 
now  in  the  Jermyn  Street  Museum  ;  it  bears 
the  date,  1763,  and  the  initials  "J.  B."  scratched 
at  the  bottom.  These  two  letters  might  stand 
for  the  name  of  John  Baddeley,  who  was  at 
that  time  one  of  the  best  potters  of  Staffordshire, 
and  was  making  ware  of  precisely  the  same  de- 
scription ;  we  cannot  say  positively  that  it  may 
be  considered  as  his  mark,  but  in  support  of  such 
a  supposition,  we  can  identify  the  pattern  as  being 
the  work  of  Aaron  Wood,  the  modeller  he  em- 
ployed, and  who  has  signed  with  his  name  more 
than  one  block  belonging  to  the  same  set.  The 
design  consists  of  the  same  basket-work,  diaper 
of  dots  and  conventional  leaves,  which  was  so 
often  "repeated  upon  all  sorts  of  table-ware.  It 
is  a  late  piece,  and  although  the  ornaments  have 
been  sunk  in  the  mould  after  the  old  style,  the 
form  is  thick  and  coarsely  cast  ;  the  moulding 
is  no  longer  finished  on  the  lathe,  and  the 
ornaments  have  lost  their  sharpness.  This  soup 
tureen  is  by  no  means  an  uncommon  specimen  ; 
we    have   ourselves    seen   many   similar   ones,    but 


SALT-GLAZE.  177 

in  all  these  the  knobs  and  claws  were  very 
different ;  this  might  be  explained  by  the  fact 
that  pieces  of  this  kind  were  produced  by  more 
than    one   maker. 

The  fact  that  soup  tureens  were  so  extensively 
made  is  not  easily  reconcilable  with  the  notion 
that  soup  appeared  on  the  table  of  very  few 
Englishmen  of  the  time,  and  would  show  that 
Salt-glaze  was  intended  for  the  upper  classes. 
The  names  under  which  they  are  designated  in 
the  old  accounts  is  the  French  word  '^ /errine,"  a.n 
earthen  basin,  which  subsequently  was  altered 
into  tureen.  Pickle  trays  are  also  described  from 
the    French   as    *' /lors-cTceuvre.** 

A  collection  formed  with  the  view  to  illustrate 
all  the  different  kinds  of  Salt-glaze  ware  made 
in  Staffordshire  during  three  quarters  of  a 
century,  would  in  itself  comprise  innumerable 
varieties  of  pieces  and  processes,  so  diversified 
were  the  transformations  the  fabric  was  made 
to  undergo,  from  the  massive  jar,  impervious 
and  indestructible,  the  material  of  which  could 
not  be  surpassed  for  the  uses  to  which  it  was 
put,  to  dainty  little  cups,  the  prettiness  of  which 
rivals  porcelain.  Long  before  Salt-glazing  had 
made  its  appearance  in  England,  **  Gres "  Stone- 
ware had  been  manufactured  in  Germany,  and 
brought  to  a  high  degree  of  excellence.  There 
the  theme  had  its  origin,  but  the  English  potter 
added   to    it   endless    variations.     He  was  the  first 


178 


SALT-GLAZE. 


who  attempted  to  impart  to  his  Stone-ware  a 
lightness  of  substance  and  a  gloss  of  surface 
which  could  render  it  fit  for  all  sorts  of  decora- 
tions. Setting  aside  the  brown  pieces  made  in 
imitation  of  German  ones,  of  which  we  have 
spoken  in  a  previous  chapter,  we  shall  try  to 
briefly  describe  the  varieties  which  would  constitute 
a  complete  collection  of  Salt-glaze.     These  are  : — 

Ornaments  of  white  clay,  stamped  with  seals, 
on  a  buff  or  white  body,  in  the  style  of  the 
Elers, 

Flowers  or  foliage  **  sprigged "  on  the  piece, 
that  is  to  say,  made  in  a  separate  mould  and 
stuck  on  with  the  slip,  the  stems  which  join 
them  together  being  made  by  hand  with  a  strip 
of  clay. 

Thin  pieces  covered  with  embossments,  made 
in  copper  or  *' pitcher"  moulds,  in  all  sorts  of 
picturesque  forms,  body  of  greyish  or  dull  yellow 
colour,   glaze   dry. 

Engine-turned   pieces   in   great   variety. 

Mixtures  of  coloured  bodies  in  the  style  of 
the   Agate-ware. 

Combinations  of  the  common  red  clay  with  a 
coating  of  white  Stone-ware,  the  scratching  of  the 
upper  coat  showing  the  dark  clay  underneath  in 
the  same  way  as  the  Italian  Sgrafiato. 

Pieces  made  in  plaster  moulds ;  white  body, 
thicker  in  substance  and  less  sharp  in  execution. 

Perforated  dishes  and  basket  ware. 


SALT-GLAZE, 


179 


Pressed   tiles,   with  landscapes    in   relief,  etc. 

The  processes  of  surface  decoration  are  also 
very   numerous. 

Some  of  the  early  embossed  pieces  are  spotted 
with  patches  of  cobalt  blue.  Upon  others  the 
ornaments  are  scratched  in  with  a  point  and 
the   lines   filled   in    with   powdered   zaflfre. 


Pig.  43.    Bbar  Joe— Coll.  L.  S. 


Light  blue  Stone-ware  paste  used  for  applied 
ornament  or  for  the  ground  in  the  same  manner 
as   blue  jasper. 

Decoration  with  dots  of  red  slip  or  lines  of 
manganese. 

Deep  cuttings  in  the  body  with  a  blade, 
diamond   shape,    or   diagonal   lines   as   upon   some 

German  pieces. 

14 


l8o  SALT-GLAZE. 

Shavings  of  clay  strewn  on  the  surface  so  as 
to  form  rough  bands  ahernating  with  smooth 
ones,    or    all    over     the    piece    as    in    the     bears 

(Fig.   43). 

Blue  Salt-glaze,  the  whole  piece  covered  with  a 
blue  ground  under  the  glaze. 

Tin-glaze  combined  with  the  Salt-glaze,  either 
for  the  ground  or  painted  on  in  opaque  decoration. 

Enamelling  in  all  sorts  of  styles. 


Fig.  44.    Scratched  Blue  Ware.— Coll.  L.  S. 

Size  gilding  or  varnish  painting. 

Printing  in  red  or  black,  etc. 

Some  of  the  above  processes  deserve  special 
attention.  The  '*  scratched  blue,"  for  instance, 
enjoyed  a  successful  run  (Fig.  44).  The  ware 
is  always  neatly  and  skilfully  potted,  but,  as  a 
contrast,  the  decoration  is  so  barbarous,  that  many 
would    not   hesitate    to    refer    it    to    the    remotest 


SALT-GLAZE. 


l8l 


infancy  of  art.  After  having  been  finished  by  the 
turner,  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  women  called 
**  flowerers,"  who  with  a  pointed  tool  scratched 
in  the  wet  clay  a  cursive  design  of  their  own 
imagining,  and,  with  a  flock  of  cotton  wool, 
dusted  in  the  hollow  lines  powdered  zafifre  or 
smalt,  that  is  to  say,  a  sort  of  glass  coloured 
with  cobalt,  that  for  the  sake  of  cheapness  the 
potters  used  for  a  long  time  in  preference  to 
the  expensive  oxide.  They  never  attained  to  a 
very  high  proficiency,  nor  does  any  master  seem 
to  have  ever  taken  care  to  supply  them  with 
good   patterns. 

Cobalt  and  zafifre  had  been  but  recently  intro- 
duced in  the  Potteries,  probably  in  consequence 
of  the  trials  of  Del  ft- ware  made  by  T.  Heath, 
of  Lane  Delph,  in  1710.  Early  pieces  of  Staf- 
fordshire pottery  do  not  exhibit  a  trace  of  its  use, 
and  it  is  not  comprised  amongst  the  metallic 
oxides  that  were  employed  to  decorate  the  Tor- 
toiseshell.  Jugs  and  mugs  of  scratched  blue  ware 
were  in  great  demand  for  public  houses,  and 
unlike  other  specimens  of  Salt-glaze,  they  often 
bear  dates  and  inscriptions,  many  of  them  refer- 
ring to  elections  and  other  public  events.  The 
gift  of  a  mug  was  one  form  of  bribery.  One 
of  them,  preserved  in  the  British  Museum,  has  : 
**  Sir  William  a  plumper,"  and  was  made  on 
the  occasion  of  the  Liverpool  contest  in  1761. 
Another,  in   Lady  Charlotte  Schrelber's  collection, 


1 82  SALT-GLAZfi. 

is  inscribed  with  four  verses  in  honour  of  the 
King  of  Prussia,  1758.  In  our  own  collection 
a   circular   pocket    flask    is   dated    1766. 

The  white  Salt-glaze  pieces  which  came  out 
of  the  mould  covered  with  embossments,  and 
were  produced  by  the  hundred,  left  the  casting 
shop  completely  finished,  and  no  particular  handi- 
work distinguished  one  from  the  other.  The 
scratched  blue,  on  the  contrary,  had  to  receive  a 
fancy  decoration,  which  could  in  each  instance  be 
made  different ;  and  often,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
the  workman  supplemented  his  design  with  in- 
scriptions of  names  and  dates.  Thus  it  happens 
that,  while  the  white  pieces  are  seldom,  if  ever, 
inscribed,  the  blue  ones  are  generally  so,  and 
many   examples   are   dated   from    1750   to    1780. 

Wedgwood,  it  is  said,  began  by  making  this 
sort  of  ware  during  his  first  partnership  with 
Harrison^  of  Stoke.  We  can  imagine  what  must 
have  been  his  dismay  when,  after  he  had  caused 
a  piece  to  be  thrown  and  turned  with  the  greatest 
care  and  precision,  he  saw  it  thus  scrawled  over 
by  inexperienced  hands.  Was  it  from  this  that 
during  his  whole  career  he  decidedly  preferred 
the  repeated  reproduction  of  a  work  modelled 
under  his  own  eyes  by  select  sculptors,  to  any' 
painting  that  could-  be  freely  executed  upon  a 
plain   surface  ? 

We  assisted  in  the  unearthing,  in  some  ex- 
cavations   at    Hanley,    of    an    enormous    heap    of 


SALT-GLAZE. 


183 


diminutive  cups  without  handles,  and  saucers  as 
thin  as  egg-shell  china,  all  broken  to  fragments, 
and  which  had  been  thrown  away  as  imperfect ; 
from  this  we  may  see  that  the  makers  of  scratched 
blue  had  great  difficulties  to  contend  with. 

Earlier  than  these,  and  evidently  made  with 
the  view  of  competing  with  the  Stone-ware  im- 
ported   from    Germany,    are   the    jugs    and    mugs 


Fig.  45.    Salt-glazb  Jug,  Imitation  of  German  Ware —Coll.  L.  S. 

which  bear  the  medallion,  or  simply  the  crowned 
monogram  of  George  I.  and  George  II.  (Fig.  45)  ; 
they  are  thinner  and  whiter  than  the  pieces  they 
strove  to  emulate  ;  they  are  likewise  incised  with 
deep  lines,  coloured  over  with  dark  blue,  and 
ribbed  on  the  top  and  bottom.  The  imitation  is 
by  no  means  a  servile  one ;  the  body  is  the 
same  as  that  used  for  the  ordinary  Salt-glaze 
pieces,   and  does   not   resemble  the   Flemish   grey 


1 84  SALT-GLAZE. 

Stone-ware,  of  which  many  examples,  also  stamped 
with  the  monogram  **G.  R.,"  remain  for  com- 
parison ;  the  decoration  is  clumsy,  being  even 
below  the  awkward  scrawling  seen  on  the  Eng- 
lish scratched  blue,  the  colour  having  been  only 
coarsely  spread  with  a  rag  soaked  in  liquid  blue. 
Usually  these  pieces  are  attributed  to  Fulham, 
but  we  know  that  a  much  better  imitation  of  the 
foreign  article  was  produced  there ;  and  fragments 
dug  up  in  the  Staffordshire  Potteries  warrant  our 
supposing  that  they  were  manufactured  in  that 
locality. 

Jugs,  mugs,  and  jars  are  frequently  met  with, 
and  they  are  all  cleverly  thrown,  turned,  and 
handled.  They  were,  no  doubt,  commonly  made 
for  the  use  of  public-houses,  and  bear  the  royal 
effigy,  with  the  monogram  **  G.  R.,"  which  stood 
then  as  a  guarantee  of  their  being  of  the  legal 
capacity.  A  small  jug  in  the  Liverpool  Museum, 
identical  in  body  and  shape  with  the  piece  repre- 
sented in  Fig.  45,  is  said  to  have  been  made 
by  y,  MalkiUy  in  1 690 ;  but  little  reliance  can  be 
placed  on  a  family  tradition  which  no  other  facts 
corroborate. 

About  1750,  Salt-glaze,  which  so  far  had  been 
decorated  with  only  random  touches  of  blue  or 
brown,  was  thought  fit  to  receive  enamel  decora- 
tion, with  the  intention  of  thereby  rivalling  the 
costly  china  made  at  Chelsea  and  Worcester.  As 
the    manufacturers    of    these    last-named    places 


SALT-GLAZE. 


i8s 


chiefly  aimed  at  reproducing  the  patterns  of 
Eastern  Porcelain,  so  did  the  first  enamellers  in 
Staffordshire,  and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  if 
painting  on  Salt-glaze  did  not  keep  in  the  track 
of  originality  opened  by  the  first  "block  cutters." 


FiQ.  46.     Enamelled  Salt-clazb.— Coll.   L.  S. 


Besides,  the  earliest  pieces  were  not,  and  could 
not  be,  painted  by  local  artists,  as  no  hands  had 
yet  been  trained  to  that  style  of  decoration. 
Two   painters,   names   unknown,   came   from    Hoi- 


1 86 


SALT-GLAZE. 


land  and  settled  in  Hot  Lane,  near  Burslem. 
They  used  to  buy  white  Stone-ware  from  the 
potters,  and  to  enamel  it  in  great  secrecy,  painting  it 
with  flowers  and  figures  in  a  pseudo-Chinese  man- 
ner (Fig.  46).  For  a  long  time  the  manufacturers 
were  dependent  on  decorators  wholly  unconnected 
with  their  pot  works.  Private  persons  came  from 
Liverpool,  Bristol,  and  Worcester,  for  the  purpose 
of  buying  Salt-glaze  ware,  and  decorating  it  on 
the  spot.  This  practice  was  all  the  easier  as 
only  a  small  muffle  was  required  for  enamel 
painting.  The  effect  was  charming,  as  we  can 
see  from  the  numerous  pieces  that  have  come 
down  to  us,  the  brilliancy  of  the  enamels  forming 
a  striking  contrast  with  the  subdued  whitish  tint 
of  the  ground. 

Very  soon  the  number  of  artists  so  employed 
in  the  Potteries  increased  considerably,  but  im- 
provements in  the  manufactories  were  not  quickly 
effected  in  a  locality  so  remote,  and  where  the 
other  industries  of  the  period  had  as  yet  hardly 
penetrated.  The  potters  could  not  seek  any  help 
or  derive  any  hints  from  any  other  collateral 
branch  of  the  trade.  In  large  towns,  where 
stained  glass  windows  were  painted,  and  where 
goldsmiths  covered  their  work  with  bright 
enamels,  the  earthenware  decorators  might  have 
been  earlier  made  acquainted  with  recipes  of 
colours  and  enamels  which  would  have  met  their 
special    wants.       It   was    indeed    in    this    way   that 


SALT-GLAZE. 


187 


the  first  china  painters  proceeded  on  the  Con- 
tinent ;  but  such  assistance  was  not  available  in 
Staffordshire,  so  the  potters  had  to  wait  once 
more  until  foreign  assistance  came  to    the   rescue. 

The  pieces  which  may  be  attributed  to  the  two 
Dutchmen  who  had  settled  at  Hot  Lane  were,  as 
far  as  enamelling  goes,  as  good  patterns  as  could 
possibly  be  procured  ;  they  show  a  skill  in  the 
pencilling  which  may  vie  with  the  most  costly 
piece  of  English  china,  and  their  colours  may 
stand  the  comparison  with  the  brightest  enamels. 
Their  decoration,  of  a  would-be  Chinese  style, 
clearly  recalls  the  art  of  the  Dutch  faience 
painters,  who,  after  having  studied  the  eastern 
porcelain  in  its  general  characteristics  rather  than 
copy  any  special  design,  let  their  fancy  run 
loose  upon  subjects  of  their  own  imagination, 
treated  somewhat  in  a  Chinese  manner.  It  was 
no  doubt  to  these  two  Dutchmen  that  were  due 
the  first  productions  of  this  new  style  of  paint- 
ing, soon  imitated  all  over  the  district,  and 
applied  not  only  to  Salt-glaze  but  also  to  cream- 
coloured   earthenware. 

Daniel,  of  Cobridge,  was  the  first  local  potter 
who  practised  enamelling  in  his  factory,  and  his 
example  was  soon  followed  by  others.  This  was 
the  highest  improvement  that  could  be  applied  to 
the  ware.  It  perfected  and  completed  its  manu- 
facture. It  achieved  at  once  a  great  success, 
principally    because  it  became  in  that  way  a  fairly 


i88 


SALT-GLAZE. 


good  substitute  for  the  painted  china  so  much 
in  fashion,  but  which,  on  account  of  its  exorbi- 
tant price,  was  only  to  be  indulged  in  by  the 
wealthiest  class.  Either  the  embossments  were 
followed  by  the  painter,  and  relieved  with  colours, 
or  else  patterns  were  traced  across  them  in  a  free 
and    off-hand   manner.      Chinese   decorations    were 


Fig.  47.    Enamelled  Salt-glaze. — Coll.   L.  S. 


often  imitated  ;  sometimes  engravings  were  copied, 
or  the  artist  chose  to  exert  his  imagination  upon 
figure  subjects  or  pastoral  compositions,  in  cos- 
tumes of  the  period.  We  possess  a  tea  canister 
painted  with  garden  scenes,  each  comprising 
several     personages    and    an    elaborate    landscape 


SALT-GLAZE.  1 89 

(Fig.  47) ;  in  front  is  a  delicately  worked  orna- 
ment, probably  the  reproduction  of  a  book  plate, 
surrounding  the  words  "  Fine  Bohea  Tea ; "  the 
whole  is  beautifully  executed.  A  coffee  pot,  also 
in  our  own  collection,  is  painted  with  flowers  in 
the  Chelsea  style,  probably  by  some  one  who 
had  come  over  from  that  manufactory.  Many 
are  the  pieces  which  have  the  portrait  of  the 
King  of  Prussia,  the  favourite  hero  of  the  time. 
On  a  curious  crabstock  handle  teapot,  of  which 
many  copies  are  still  in  existence,  his  profile  is 
enamelled  in  proper  colour,  while  the  whole 
ground  is  dotted  over  with  small  black  strokes 
to  represent  ermine.  We  have  several  specimens 
of  various  coloured  grounds — red,  maroon,  blue, 
and  green ;  small  white  medallions  are  reserved, 
upon  which  are  painted  landscapes  or  bouquets 
of  flowers,  somewhat  in  the  Worcester  style.  By 
the  additional  process  of  size  gilding,  these  pieces 
are  made  to  look  very  handsome,  and  there  is 
little  excuse  left  for  their  aristocratic  models  to 
give  themselves  airs  of  superiority.  The  enamels 
on  all  these  pieces  shine  with  the  brightest  hues  ; 
the  turquoise  blue  especially  would  bear  com- 
parison with  the  best  soft  china  colour,  and  they 
stand  out  all  the  better  by  the  contrast  they 
offer  to  the  dull  grey  tint  of  the  body.  In 
many  cases  so  much  skill  and  finish  have  been 
bestowed  on  the  painting,  that  we  cannot  help 
thinking    it    would    attract   much   greater   admira- 


1 90  SALT-GLAZE. 

tion  if  it  had  only  been  executed  upon  a  finer 
material.  At  any  rate,  the  decoration  seldom  lacks 
the  style  and  character  so  often  missing  from 
highly  valued  examples  of  English  china.  For 
this  reason  the  artist  cannot  but  look  with 
partiality  upon  the  best  pieces  of  enamelled 
Salt-glaze,    and   praise   their   decorative  effect. 

The  traces  of  half-obliterated  gilding  remaining 
on  some  pieces  show  that  gold  was  often  intro- 
duced in  the  decoration,  but  the  potters  did  not 
yet  know  how  to  burn  it  in.  We  learn  from 
Wedgwood's  letters,  that  in  1765  he  himself  was 
still  busy  trying  to  overcome  the  difficulty. 
Leaf  gold,  secured  with  size  or  varnish,  was 
employed,  and  burnished  gold  was  not  practised 
in  the  Potteries  until  some  years  later,  when 
some  workmen  brought  the  process  over  from 
the    Derby   manufactory. 

We  have  said  that  the  use  of  plaster  moulds 
took  away  many  of  the  artistic  features  of  the  early 
Salt-glaze.  The  facility  with  which  casts  could  be 
taken  from  metal  or  china  pieces,  led  to  the 
reproduction  of  many  admired  models,  and  the 
ware,  which  had  kept  its  originality  for  such  a 
long  time,  was  debased  into  mere  copies.  So  we 
find  the  "  bee  jug,"  of  Bow,  made  of  white  Stone- 
ware, and  salt  cellars  with  shells  and  sea-weeds, 
similar  to  those  of  Plymouth.  In  Mr.  Willett's 
collection  is  a  group  of  several  figures,  imitating 
white   porcelain  so  perfectly  that  it  might  deceive 


SALT-GLAZE.  1 9  ^ 

anyone  at  a  first  glance.  WedgwoocT s  jasper 
was  also  imitated.  Mr.  Shadford  Walker,  of 
Liverpool,  has  two  medallions  on  a  blue  ground, 
with  applied  portraits  of  Josiah  Wedgwood  and 
his  wife,  after  the  pictures  by  Stubbs.  These 
medallions  at  one  time  were  very  commonly 
found  in  the  Potteries.  As  Delft  tiles  made  at 
Liverpool  or  abroad  were  extensively  used  for 
fire-places  or  decorative  purposes,  tiles  in  stamped 
Salt-glaze  were  manufactured  to  compete  with 
them.  We  possess  a  set  of  these  which  came 
from  Whieldons  own  house.  They  were  probably 
made  by  him,  as  the  same  patterns  are  also 
found  decorated  with  his  usual  "  tortoiseshell " 
process.  They  represent  landscapes  and  animals, 
and  the  moulds  used  were  carved  after  the  old 
fashion. 

The  perforated  porcelain  plates  and  dishes 
brought  over  from  Dresden  gave  rise  to  a  new 
style  of  dessert  services,  perforated  on  the  rim, 
and  embossed  all  over  with  basket  work,  and 
various  ornaments ;  for  the  modest  admirer  who 
could  not  afford  the  expense  of  such  costly 
luxury  as  foreign  china,  fruit  baskets  and  plates, 
cut  out  with  equal  delicacy,  were  manufactured 
in  Salt-glaze  ware,  and  being  comparatively  cheap, 
met  with  a  ready  sale.  They  were  not  copies, 
but  distant  reminiscences ;  and  a  certain  pattern 
cut  in  the  mould  by  Aaron  Wood,  and  evinc- 
ing  an    incontestable   originality,   is   now  in   every 


192  SALT-GLAZE. 

collection.  An  enormous  quantity  must  have 
been  produced,  for  even  in  our  days  it  would 
not  be  difficult  to  bring  together  entire  services 
of  it.  In  the  same  manner  open-work  fruit 
baskets  of  a  fragile  character,  made  like  real 
wicker  work,  or  with  an  open  design,  the  in- 
tricacy of  which  dispensed  with  any  addition  of 
painting  or  gilding,  cruet  stands,  and  puzzle  jugs 
were  made.  We  have  a  charming  sweet  box, 
formed  of  a  double  shell  ;  the  outer  one,  thin 
as  an  ordinary  sheet  of  cardboard,  is  perforated 
with  numerous  holes  which  show  the  inner  box 
in  the  same  way  as  certain  Chinese  puzzles. 
The  most  delicate  perforations  were  practised 
upon  thinly  turned  pieces  with  steel  tools,  cut- 
ting out  the  hole  at  one  blow  in  the  required 
shape,  so,  by  '* punching"  as  it  was  called,  the 
top  of  a  jug  or  the  rim  of  a  plate  could,  with 
very  little  trouble,  be  made  to  look  marvellously 
worked. 

The  manufacture  of  Salt-glaze  was  not  confined 
to  Staffordshire.  At  Jackfield  it  was  made  early 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  although,  probably,  only 
in  imitation  of  the  ware  made  in  the  adjoining 
county,  and  there,  towards  1763,  Simpson  manu- 
factured pipe-clay  ware  glazed  with  salt  for  the 
American   market. 

At  Leeds,  white  and  enamelled  Salt-glaze 
preceded  the  manufacture  of  cream-coloured 
earthenware.     The    Rev.   T.  Stanniforth  possesses 


SALT-GLAZE.  193 

a  white  jug  painted  with  enamels,  and  inscribed 
with    the   name   of  the   town. 

At  Liverpool,  quantities  of  "  wasters "  have 
been  found  on  the  site  of  Shaw's  manufactory, 
and  many  stamped  pieces  bear  the  liver,  the 
bird  which  is  the  crest  of  the  town.  The 
rare  printed  plates  may  also  have  been  made 
there. 

At  Swansea,  according  to  Chaffers,  a  very  thin 
Salt-glaze  ware,  roughly  but  effectively  decorated 
with  bright  enamels,  was  made  about  1780,  and 
some  of  the  specimens  are  marked  "  Cambrian 
Pottery."  It  was  probably  made  at  many  other 
places,  of  which  no  records  remain.  It  is  said 
that  a  small  manufactory  lingered  at  Burslem 
until   1823. 

In  our  time  the  wafer-like  white  stone-ware 
glazed  with  salt  has  gone  the  way  of  the  heavy 
Delft ;  they  both  had  their  day,  and  then  ceased 
to  be. 

More,  perhaps,  than  any  other  English  ware, 
the  Salt-glaze  excites  the  interest  we  feel  for  any 
artistic  production  which  speaks  to  us  of  by-gone 
times,  obsolete  taste,  and  vanished  customs ;  in 
short  it  does  look  old ;  older,  indeed,  than  many 
pieces  that  can  boast  of  a  much  more  ancient 
pedigree.  Independently  of  their  proper  merits, 
an  old  painting  darkened  and  mellowed  by  age, 
an  oxidized  bronze,  a  weather-beaten  building, 
or    a    time-worn    statue,    possesses    an    attractive 


194  SALT-GLAZE.    ' 

charm  that  age  alone  has  imparted.  A  feeling 
'  of  the  same  sort,  a  mingled  sensation  of  liking 
and  curiosity,  has  from  the  first  attracted  us 
towards  the  strange-looking  specimens  of  early- 
Salt-glaze  ware.  Their  soft  creamy  tint  recalls 
that  of  old  ivory,  and  the  glossy  surfaces  of 
both  offer  resemblances  ;  the  designs,  simple  and 
"  naif"  as  they  are,  may  be  compared  for  their 
conventionality  to  those  which  adorn  the  pages 
of  Gothic  MSS.  If  we  add  to  this,  that  most 
of  these  embossed  and  wafer-like  pieces  have 
come  out  from  the  firing  twisted  and  crooked, 
and  so  are  very  different  from  anything  else 
the  eye  generally  rests  upon,  we  shall  see  at 
once  how  difficult  it  would  be,  by  a  mere  process 
of  comparison  with  other  artistic  objects,  to  ascribe 
any  definite,  age  to  them.  One  can  easily  under- 
stand how  ''Elizabethan  ware"  was  thought  to  be 
at  first  a  suitable  name,  when  little  or  nothing 
was  known  of  the  Staffordshire  Potteries,  and  of 
the  potters  who,  for  more  than  a  century,  had 
spread   their   productions   all    over    England. 

Few  things  are  left  for  the  amateur  of  the 
future  ;  even  for  him  of  the  present  day  who  can- 
not command  an  unlimited  supply  of  money, 
collecting  begins  to  be  a  hopeless  pursuit ;  all 
has  been  gathered,  classified,  and  priced,  all 
excepting  the  works  of  the  old  English  Potter  ; 
many  are  still  about,  to  be  picked  up  at  a 
small   price   for   the   gratification  of  the  few  who, 


SALT-GLAZE.  195 

like  ourselves,  delight  in  studying  and  admiring 
these  primitive  productions.  It  is  not  too  late  to 
begin  to  form  collections,  and  we  hope  that  one 
day  we  shall  see  the  Early  English  earthenware 
valued   and   appreciated   as   it   deserves   to   be. 


«5 


CHAPTER  Vll. 


EARTHENWARE. 

CREAM-COLOUR,    AGATE     WARE,    TORTOISES  HELL, 

Etc 


Antiquity    of   Earthenware — Its    Revival    by     English 
Potters. — Improvements   in  Earthenware  following  on 
THE  Researches  for  a  White  Body.— Increase  in  the 
Trade  of  the  Potteries  towards  the  Beginning  of 
the  Eighteenth  Century. — Introduction  of  Flint 
and    Cream-colour    Ware. — Tortoiseshell  and 
Colours  under  Glaze. — Patents. — Agate  Ware. 
— Thomas     Astbury. — Ralph     Shaw. — John 
Mitchell. — Thomas  and  John  Wedgwood. — 
Thomas  Whieldon. — Shapes  and  Models. 
— Imitations  and  Piracies. — Introduc- 
tion  INTO  the  Potteries  of   Blue 
Painting  on  Earthenware. — En- 
amelling. —   Foreign      China 
Painters  working  in  England. 
—  Plaster     Moulds     and 
their     Effect.    —  Last 
Improvements      in 
Cream-Colour. 


EARTH  ENWARE. 


^HE  history  of  the  best  English  earthen- 
ware glazed  with  lead  is  so  intimately 
linked  with  the  records  of  the  manu- 
facture of  common  pottery  in  the 
earliest  times,  the  one  being  sa  necessarily  the 
outgrowth  of  the  other,  that  it  is  difficult  to 
fix  the  date  when  the  fabric  entered  on  the 
course  of  improvements  by  which  it  gradually 
came  to  assert  itself  as  the  cheapest,  the  neatest, 
and  the  most  suitable  ware  that  could  be  con- 
trived to  supply  our  ordinary  wants,  and 
ultimately  superseded  all  the  more  complicated 
processes  which  previously  had  had  their  turn 
of  fashion  and  success.  A  little  more  care  in 
the  potting  and  in  the  way  of  applying  the 
glaze,    and   the   vessels   of  the  middle  ages   might 


200^*  EARTHENWARE. 

have  rivalled  most  of  the  cream-colour  pieces 
made  in  the  eighteenth  century.  The  common 
marl  of  the  country,  mixed  with  pipe-clay  and 
a  little  sand,  constituted  a  plastic  body  which 
could  be  worked  easily  and  quickly,  and  also 
fired  safely ;  as  to  glazing,  the  lead  ore  or 
*'  galena "  demanded  but  little  preparation,  and 
the  colours  were  all  obtained  with  the  oxides 
of  such  well-known  metals  as  were  in  after  times 
thought  sufficient  for  the  production  of  a  much 
higher  class  of  ware ;  so  the  groundwork  the 
potter  had  to  improve  upon  was  simple  and 
sound.  With  these  commonplace  materials, 
marvels  of  the  fictile  art  had  occasionally  been 
accomplished,  masterpieces,  as  remarkable  for 
the  beauty  and  purity  of  their  shapes  as  the 
harmony  of  their  colours.  Nevertheless,  earthen- 
ware potting  remained  stationary  for  a  long  time, 
as  we  have  seen,  and  there  was  no  demand 
for  it.  The  lower  classes  were  satisfied  with 
the  wooden  utensils  or  coarse  clay  pans  that 
answered  their  daily  requirements  ;  and  for  show, 
even  well-to-do  people  preferred  to  anything  else 
the  tin  dishes  that  most  resembled  the  silver  plate 
which  adorned  the  dresser  of  the  titled  and  the 
wealthy.  The  requisites  of  the  dinner  table  in 
Staffordshire  are  so  described  in  the  "  Potter's 
Art,"  a  poem  privately  published  at  Burslem  in 
1828,  by  J.  Ward,  the  author  of  the  **  History 
of  Stoke-upon-Trent :  '* 


EARTHENWARE.  20I 

**  The  housewife— prim  in  days  we  knew  ourselves — 
Display'd  her  polish'd  pe^uter  on  her  shelves, 
Reserved  to  honor  most  the  annual  feast, 
When  ev'ry  kinsman  prov'd  a  welcome  guest ; 
No  earthen  plates  or  dishes  then  were  known, 
Save  at  the  humble  board  as  coarse  as  stone ; 
And  there  the  trencher  commonly  was  seen 
With  its  attendant  ample  platter  treen  (wooden)." 

On  the  Continent  the  first  trials  for  a  refined 
earthenware  were  master  strokes,  and  should 
have  led  to  an  important  manufacture,  yet  these 
attempts  do  not  seem  to  have  been  followed  up. 
What  could  excel,  for  instance,  the  style  and 
cleverness  of  workmanship  of  the  faience  d'Oiron, 
precious  gems  formed  of  the  commonest  clay  .'^ 
From  such  a  beginning  what  marvels  might  not 
have  been  expected ;  but  nothing  came  of  it, 
they  remained  mere  trials,  only  made  to  gratify 
the  fancy  of  a  highly-gifted  noblewoman,  en- 
dowed with  a  keen  sense  of  beauty  and  a 
craving  for  perfection.  As  soon  as  the  inspiring 
spirit  ceased  to  direct  the  efforts  of  her  assistants, 
their  art  declined  and  passed  away  altogether.  In 
Bauvaisie,  at  about  the  same  period,  the  country 
people  were  for  a  time  not  short  of  ornamental 
and  artistic  pottery ;  the  earthenware  potters  of 
Lachapelle  des  Pots  were  modelling  all  sorts  of 
quaint  pieces,  curiously  contrived  in  shape,  and 
elaborately  embossed ;  nevertheless,  their  work 
differed  completely  from  the  ware  made  at  Oiron. 
This  latter  owes  its  chief  beauty  to  grace  of  form, 


202-  EARTHENWARfi. 

and  to  the  delicate  effect  obtained  by  the  pure 
cream-colour  ground  being  minutely  damascened 
with  coloured  clays.  In  the  case  of  the  ware 
of  Lachapelle  des  Pots,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
ground  is  all  covered  with  rich  glazes,  exhaust- 
ing the  gamut  of  the  powerful  harmonies  that  can 
be  obtained  with  metallic  oxides.  The  unknown 
potters  of  Bauvaisie  were  the  forerunners  of 
Palissy,  who  shortly  afterwards  showed  what 
more  could  be  still  achieved  by  means  of  the 
ordinary  clay  stained  with  coloured  glazes ;  his 
indomitable  energy  and  his  refined  taste  raised 
his  art  to  so  high  a  level,  that  it  became  a 
hopeless  task  for  his  successors  to  attempt  to 
maintain  the  heavy  inheritance  which  Palissy 
bequeathed  to  them.  The  advent  of  the  opaque 
glaze  faience,  which  had  the  advantage  of  being 
of  a  pure  and  glossy  white,  and  showing  brighter 
colours,  threw  the  works  of  all  these  great  potters 
into  the  shade ;  their  teachings  were  forgotten, 
and  earthenware  ran  once  more  the  risk  of  being 
relegated  to  the  limbo  of  materials  unworthy  of 
receiving  any  artistic  treatment. 

Upon  the  old  English  potters  devolved  the 
honour  of  reviving  the  obsolete  manufacture,  and 
thus  they  became  unconsciously  the  true  successors 
of  Helene  of  Hangest  and  Palissy ;  but  where  the 
great  artists  had  only  found  scope  for  displaying 
their  unapproachable  individuality,  the  plodding, 
ingenious,  and  practical  potters  of  England,  work- 


EARTHENWARE.  203 

ing  as  a  body,  succeeded  in  creating,  by  gradual 
transformations,  a  ware  so  superior  to  all  others, 
that  it  affected  the  conditions  of  the  potting  trade 
in  general,  and  all  Europe  was  influenced  and 
benefited  by  the  discovery. 

As  far  back  as  we  can  trace  the  dawn  of  the 
first  improvements,  we  see  that  along  with  the 
red  or  brown  clay,  the  greyish  marl  continued 
to  be  used  in  its  native  state.  Both  were  glazed 
with  ** galena"  or  lead  ore,  by  the  primitive 
process  of  dusting  it  over  the  pieces  through  a 
bag  of  coarse  cloth.  Light-coloured  ware  was 
therefore  made  concurrently  with  all  other  kinds, 
but  no  preference  seems  to  have  been  given  to  it, 
at  first,  over  the  dark  or  black  vessels  that  were 
commonly  used ;  and  yet  its  dull  yellowish  tint 
was  capable  of  being  vividly  coloured,  and  was 
better  adapted  to  show  the  modelling  of  the 
surface.  Little  heed  was  taken  of  those  qualities. 
It  was  chiefly  employed  as  a  coating  for  darker 
clays,  for  slip  painting,  or  for  applied  ornamenta- 
tion ;  few,  if  any,  pieces  were  made  of  plain  yellow 
clay,  unless  something  exceptional  was  intended ; 
in  short,  there  was  nothing  to  indicate  the  im- 
portant part  it  was  destined  to  play  in  the 
ceramics  of  the  future.  When  researches  for  a 
white  ware,  glazed  with  salt,  were  being  actively 
prosecuted  in  the  pot  works  of  Staffordshire, 
many  combinations  of  clay  had  to  be  experi- 
mented  upon,    and   the   common   earthenware  was 


204  earthenware; 

materially     advanced    by    the   experience   acquired 
through     the    trials    made    with    a   view    to   obtain 
quite   a   different   body.     The   production  of  white 
Stone-ware    required    a   good    deal    more  care  and 
delicacy    than    had   hitherto   been   bestowed   upon 
ordinary     potting,    and    yellow    clay     glazed     with 
lead  followed   in   the   track  of  the   newly-invented 
and  more  refined  ware.     Both  being  manufactured 
at    the    same    place    and   by    the    same  men,  they 
kept    abreast    in  the  course  of  successive  Improve- 
ments ;     the    same   mould    was   used   whether    the 
piece   was   to   be    made   of  white  Stone-ware  and 
fired  at  a  high  temperature  in  the  Salt-glaze  oven, 
or   of   common   clay,  to    be    coloured,  glazed  with 
lead,   and    submitted   to    a   lower  degree   of   heat  ; 
in   one   case,    to    commend    itself  by   the    neatness 
of  shape  an4  details  ;  in  the  other,  made  attractive 
by    Its    deep  harmony  of  colours  profusely  flowing 
over  the  surface.     It  is  as  though  we  found  there 
again   the   old   contention   of   drawing    and    colour 
striving  for  precedence.      We   may  be   allowed  to 
remark  here  that  richness  of  hue   seems    to   have 
been   the   natural    bent   of  English    taste.       In   its 
early    and   most   genuine   productions   it   affects   a 
decided  tendency  towards  bright  and  showy  colours. 
It   Is   only    when  the  fact  is   denounced    by  some 
cold-blooded    reformer    that   people   seem    to    rush 
unanimously   to   the   opposite   extreme,    discarding 
what  they  best  liked.     Ashamed  one  day  of  their 
natural    feelings   of   admiration,    they   allow    them- 


EARTHENWARE.  205 

selves  to  be  talked  into  accepting  anything  that 
may  be  palmed  off  upon  them  as  models,  and  so 
the  conventionality  and  stiffness  of  a  so-called 
high  style  may  be  substituted  for  the  charms  of  a 
genuine  and  unsophisticated  art.  In  Ceramics,  as 
in  painting,  the  English  artist  begins  by  showing 
himself  a  true  colourist,  and  yet  the  lively  and 
harmonious  pottery  of  the  commencement  had  to 
make  room  for  the  dull  and  formal  cream-colour 
and  monochrome  earthenware  which  prevailed  at 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  We  may  well 
ask  ourselves  what  had  become  of  the  promise 
contained  in  the  powerful  productions  of  the 
tortoiseshell  period  ;  misplaced  self-criticism  and 
a  too  severe  repression  of  innate  propensities, 
in  more  instances  than  this,  waylaid  English  art 
and    turned    it    from    its    natural   channel. 

During  the  whole  course  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  many  different  processes  were  in  embryo 
amongst  the  potters  of  Staffordshire,  but  pro- 
duction continued  to  be  limited,  and  little  progress 
was  noticeable  in  the  extension  of  their  trade ; 
when  suddenly,  towards  the  beginning  of  the 
following  century,  a  rage  for  improvement  sets 
in,  and  within  a  few  years  pervades  the  whole 
district.  Everyone  is  at  work  bringing  his  small 
stone  to  the  monument.  Some  are  sedulously 
engaged  mixing  and  trying  all  clays  and  minerals 
that  can  be  procured  at  home  ;  others,  more 
enterprising,    take   the  unwonted  step  of  travelling 


206 


EARTHENWARE. 


long  distances  in  quest  of  fresh  materials  and 
suggestive  models.  With  an  astounding  rapidity- 
changes  follow  upon  changes,  pottery  is  applied 
to  all  sorts  of  fresh  uses,  ovens  are  built  all 
over  the  district,  and  a  flourishing  industry  is 
established  for  exportation  as  well  as  for  home 
trade.  Notwithstanding  the  rapid  increase  of 
population  in  the  surrounding  country,  farmers 
find  themselves  short  of  hands ;  crops  can  hardly 
be  gathered  in,  and  tradesmen  in  towns  cannot 
any  longer  obtain  apprentices.  All  men  and 
women  go  to  the  pot  works,  where  there  is 
never  a  sufficient  supply  of  labour,  and  where 
wages  soon  grow  to  be  uncommonly  high  for 
skilful   workmen. 

The  numerous  patents  granted  at  that  time  in 
connection  .with  earthenware  are  a  sign  of  the 
prevalent  excitement  and  the  general  desire  for 
novelties.  We  shall  give  further  on  a  few  of 
their  specifications,  though  little  can  be  made 
of  their  obscure  phraseology.  They  have  only 
a  secondary  interest  for  us,  when  we  remember 
that  such  important  discoveries  as  caused  a  revo- 
lution in  the  trade  were  never  patented  at  all. 
Up  to  that  time,  as  we  have  seen,  the  lightest 
ware  was  of  a  dull,  smoky  tint,  still  further 
darkened  by  the  thick  coating  of  sulphuret  of 
lead,  either  dusted  over  the  piece  or  unevenly 
applied  with  a  hair  pencil.  The  most  interesting 
and  effectual  innovations  bore  upon  the  two  prin- 


EARTHENWARE.  207 

cipal  desiderata  of  the  potters  of  the  day,  namely, 
obtaining  a  perfectly  white  body,  which,  being 
easily  formed  into  shape,  should  not  crack  in  the 
firing,  and  a  colourless  fluid  glaze.  These  two 
wants  were  supplied,  by  Astburys  introduction  of 
flint  bodies  in  1720,  and,  at  an  interval  of  thirty 
years,  by  E.  Booth's  method  of  dipping  the  ware 
into  an  improved  glaze  kept  in  suspension  in  water. 

As  soon  as  Astbury  had  fixed  the  exact 
proportion  of  flint  that  was  to  enter  into  its 
composition,  the  earthenware  body  may  be  said 
to  have  been  invented  and  settled.  We  shall 
not  question  the  veracity  of  the  oft-told  tale, 
relating  how  he  was  delayed  in  one  of  his 
journeys  to  London,  to  have  the  injured  eye  of 
his  horse  attended  to  by  a  farrier,  who,  taking  a 
black  flint  stone,  calcined  it  in  the  fire,  then 
crushing  it  into  a  fine  powder,  blew  the  dust 
into  the  horse's  eye  ;  in  short,  how  it  happened 
that  the  potter,  being  struck  with  the  whiteness 
of  the  material,  caused  a  wagon  load  of  flint 
stones  to  be  brought  to  Shelton,  where  he  suc- 
cessfully combined  the  calcined  powder  with  his 
ordinary  clays. 

The  story,  which,  by-the-bye,  is  by  some 
attributed  to  a  Mn  Heath,  of  Shelton,  may  be 
true,  or  may  rank  amongst  other  doubtful 
anecdotes.  Notwithstanding  the  knowledge  we 
possess  of  pounded  flint  having  been  employed 
by   Dwight    in   the   composition    of  some   of    his 


208^ 


EARTHENWARE. 


bodies,  and  the  probability  that  Dwight  was  not 
the  first  to  use  it,  since  he  does  not  set  up  any 
claims  to  the  discovery,  it  remains  an  undisputed 
fact  that  to  Astbury  alone  was  due  the  credit, 
if  not  of  having  found  out  quite  a  new  material, 
at  all  events  of  having  determined  in  what  pro- 
portions it  was  to  be  added  to  the  compound 
body  which  no  one  had  made  before  him,  and 
which  remained  for  ever  after,  in  spite  of  small 
modifications,  about  the  same  as  he  had  left  it, 
under  whatever  name  his  "  cream  colour "  may 
have  been  subsequently  disguised. 

At  first  the  attention  of  inventors  was  chiefly 
directed  towards  technicalities,  perfecting  clays  and 
glazes,  and  improving  their  manipulation  ;  all  had 
to  be  found  out ;  and  before  they  thought  of  en- 
dowing the, ware  with  artistic  qualities,  they  strove 
to  secure  a  safe  ground  to  work  upon.  This  is 
the  reason  why  we  may  now  admire  unreservedly 
their  most  unpretentious  early  pieces,  the  fruit 
of  these  first  experiments  and  researches,  observ- 
ing how  the  clays  are  well  ground  and  levigated  ; 
what  perfection  is  at  once  reached  in  the  turning 
and  moulding  of  a  simple  teapot ;  how  the  lid 
fits  well  each  piece ;  how  sharp  are  the  lines, 
and  true  the  shape.  A  good  make  is  the  main 
consideration,  and,  even  for  decoration,  design 
comes  only  second  to  the  process  employed. 

The  strenuous  efforts  of  the  Staffordshire 
potters     had    at    last    succeeded    in   obtaining     a 


EARTHENWARE.  209 

white  ware,  for  which  there  was  a  great  demand  ; 
the  flint  bodies,  either  cream-colour  glazed  with 
lead  or  Salt-glazed  stone-ware,  steadily  acquired 
more  whiteness  by  successive  improvements  ;  but 
at  the  same  time  the  potters  made  a  labour  of 
love  of  experimenting  upon  their  coloured  clays 
and  glazes,  the  continuation  of  the  works  of  their 
fathers,  an  inheritance  they  jealously  kept  and 
enlarged  day  by  day.  There  was  no  sign  of 
their  giving  up  making  the  dry  red-ware,  finely 
stamped  with  seals,  or  the  highly  glazed  pieces 
of  dark  yellow  or  bright  red  clay  relieved  with 
coloured  applications.  While  many  preferred  the 
fanciful  and  ever-varied  pieces  brilliant  with  the 
harmonious  hues  of  divers  coloured  glazes, 
others  continued  to  show  their  partiality  for  the 
shining  black  tea-ware,  which  made  such  a  con- 
trast with  the  spotless  table-cloth.  There  has, 
indeed,  always  been  in  England  a  decided  liking 
for  black  ware ;  and  although  it  was  manufactured 
in  many  places  on  the  Continent,  nowhere  does 
it  seem  to  have  so  well  suited  the  public  taste  as 
in  this  country.  From  the  first  trials  made  by 
the  Elers  in  the  dry  bodies,  and  the  black  glazed 
Tygs  of  Staffordshire,  the  ware  was  constantly 
made  and  improved  upon,  until  it  became  the 
black  basalt  oi  Josiah  Wedgwood ;  nay,  since  his 
time  the  manufacture  has  never  been  discon- 
tinued. 

Under  the    name   of   "  clouded "   or    "  mottled," 


210 


earthenwarS. 


earthenware,  coloured  with  metallic  oxides,  had 
been  for  a  long  time  before  produced ;  this 
doubtless  led  to  the  imitation  of  tortoiseshell,  so 
effectively  carried  out  by  means  of  manganese 
spotted   with  a  sponge   over  the  dry  clay  ;    simple 


Fig.  48.    Tortoiseshell  Coffee  Pot.— Coll.  L.  S. 


as  this  process  was,  the  aptitude  of  certain  work- 
men realised  with  it  some  astonishing  results 
obtained  by  the  well-contrasted  shades  of  the 
opaque  and  the  transparent  parts  (Fig.  48).  The 
success  was  immense,  and  the    name  of  "  tortoise- 


EARTHENWARE.  2  I  1 

shell,"  which  had  been  given  to  that  ware,  was  so 
readily  recognized  by  the  public,  that  the  same 
name  extended  to  everything  that  was  mottled 
under  glaze  with  varied  colours  ;  we  shall  also 
keep  to  the  same  word  with  regard  to  pieces 
of  this  class  whenever  we  may  have  to  refer 
to  them.  Copper  green,  antimony,  ochre  yellow, 
manganese,  and  sometimes  a  touch  of  zaffre,  were 
the  only  oxides  used,  and  the  colours  blended  in 
a  remarkable  manner  when  melting  under  a  thick 
and  smooth  glaze  ;  this  was  partly  owing  to  their 
being  fired  in  the  same  oven  alternately  with 
Salt-glaze,  the  brickwork  and  saggers  being  so 
much  soaked  with  melted  salt,  that  the  vapours 
of  soda  pervaded  all  the  atmosphere  during  the 
firing,  acting  upon  the  colours  as  a  flowing  agent. 
This  method  may  probably  account  for  Shaw 
having  mistaken  the  old  cream-colour  for  white 
stone-ware,  and  for  his  speaking  of  it  as  having 
been  indiscriminately  glazed  with  salt  or  with 
lead    ore. 

In  1724,  Robert  Redrich  and  Thomas  Jones 
took  out  a  patent  for  **  staining,  veining,  spotting, 
clouding,  damascening,  or  otherwise  imitating  the 
various  kinds  of  marble,  porphyry,  and  other  rich 
stones,  tortoiseshell,  etc.,  on  wood,  stone,  or 
earthenware."  As  we  can  see  from  this  speci- 
fication that  the  process  could  be  applied  to 
wood    or   stone    as   well    as    earthenware,   it   was 

necessarily  a   surface   one,    and  may   be    regarded 
16 


2  1 2  EARTHENWARE. 

as  a  derivation  from  that  used  for  marblinof 
papers  ;  with  regard  to  its  application  to  pottery 
it  offered  Httle  novelty,  for  the  imitation  of 
tortoiseshell  as  well  as  the  combed  ware  had 
been  practised  a  long  time  before. 

But  this  leads  us  to  speak  of  the  "  Agate- 
ware "  which  Dr,  Thomas  Wedgwoody  son  of 
Thomas  Wedgwood,  of  the  Overhouse  Works,  at 
Burslem,  is  said  to  have  made  in  great  perfection. 
On  the  site  of  his  manufactory,  when  digging  the 
foundations  of  a  new  market,  many  fragments 
were  disinterred.  Agate-ware  was  a  complicated 
process  ;  the  marbling,  instead  of  being  produced 
on  the  surface,  went  through  the  body.  It  was 
thus  practised  : — Thin  laminse  of  yellow  and  red 
clay  were  laid  alternately  upon  each  other  until 
they  formejd  a  thick  mass ;  from  that  mass  thin 
slices  were  transversely  cut  with  a  wire,  making 
thin  bats  which  showed  the  veining  produced  by 
the  superimposed  layers  of  clays ;  these  slices 
were  then  used  to  press  the  piece,  the  neatest 
side  being  placed  against  the  mould.  In  the 
case  of  a  square  mould  being  used,  as  shown 
in  Fig.  49,  the  veining  lost  nothing  of  its  neat- 
ness, but,  as  a  rule,  the  bat  required  careful 
handling,  as  a  pressure  sideways  in  the  wedging 
in,  or  a  too  rough  pressing  in  the  mould  de- 
stroyed the  fineness  in  the  marbling.  Nothing 
more  delicate  could  be  formed  from  clay,  espe- 
cially   when     they     were     finished     and     polished 


EARTHENWARE.  2  1 3 

on  the  lathe,  and  either  glazed  in  their  natural 
colours,  red  and  yellow,  or  different  shades  of 
brown  and  red,  or  else  stained  with  a  blue  glaze, 
which  imparted  to  the  mixture  the  fine  greyish 
hue  of  agate.  Pieces  of  a  small  size  alone,  such 
as  tea  ware,  pickle  trays,  sauce  boats,  and  snuff 
boxes,  were  made  of  these  mixed  bodies.  Seldom 
do   they    show  any  embossment;  round  pieces  got 


Fig.  49,     Agate-ware.— Coll.  L.  S. 

a  better  surface  by  turning.  A  purse-shaped  tea- 
pot, of  which  several  replicas  are  known,  may  be 
considered  as  an  exception ;  its  shape  is  ribbed 
in  imitation  of  the  shell  teapots  then  commonly 
made  in  Salt-glaze,  but  without  any  of  their 
intricate  details  ;  a  flat  slice  of  marbled  clay  could 
not  have  been  forced  into  narrow  cavities  without 
losing     its     fine     veining     through     the     requisite 


214  EARTHENWARE. 

manipulation,  consequently  the  original  shape  has 
been  rounded,  softened,  and  smoothed,  to  facilitate 
the  pressing.  It  is  worth  noticing  that  these 
Agate-ware  pieces  are  certainly  anterior  in  date 
to  the  supposed  introduction  of  the  process  of 
pressing  in  the  Staffordshire  Potteries.  We  may 
hazard  the  supposition  that  casting  and  throwing 
were  generally  preferred,  and  that  pressing  was 
confined  to  a  limited  use  long  before  it  became 
commonly  employed  at  the  time  fixed  by  tradition. 
The  knife  hafts  so  extensively  manufactured 
by  Dr.  Thomas  Wedgwood  and  Whieldon  for 
the  cutlers  of  Sheffield  are  precisely  similar  in 
body  and  glaze  to  this  specimen,  and  we  may 
refer  it  to  one  of  these  two  potters,  probably 
the  latter,  considering  Its  perfection.  The  innova- 
tion introduced  in  the  making  of  Agate-ware,  by 
which  it  differs  from  the  mixed  clays  employed 
a  very  long  time  before,  is  the  transverse 
cutting  through  the  mass  with  a  wire,  which 
gave  a  fineness  and  continuity  to  the  lines  of 
the  marbling  unobtainable  by  the  ordinary  mode 
of  blending  the  clays,  and  the  pressing  in  a 
mould  instead  of  throwing  on  the  wheel,  by 
which  the  veining  was  disturbed.  At  Fulham, 
Dwight  produced  a  sort  of  Agate-ware,  with  grey 
and  white  Stone-ware ;  and  many  common  pieces 
of  the  same  period  are  streaked  with  light  and 
dark  clays.  Early,  in  Staffordshire,  different 
coloured    clays     were    also   blended  together   in  a 


EARTHENWARE.  2  I  5 

rough  way,  so  as  to  imitate  marble ;  in  that 
manner  large  slabs  were  made,  some  destined  to 
be  inserted  in  the  walls  of  houses,  recording  the 
name  of  the  owner  and  the  year  of  construction  ; 
others,  with  inscriptions  scratched  in,  or  laid  on 
with  slip,  were  set  up  over  graves  ;  some  of  these 
are  still  to  be  seen  in  the  churchyards  of  the 
Potteries. 

Another  patent  was  granted  in  1729  to  Samtiel 
Bell  for  a  new  method  of  making  a  red  marble 
Stone-ware  to  imitate  ruby.  Of  this  we  are  not 
able  to  give  any  account,  unless  it  referred  to 
a  variety  of  bright  red  and  yellow  Agate-ware, 
a  specimen  of  which  is  in  our  collection,  and 
is  the   only  one  of  the  sort  we  ever  came  across. 

Agate-ware,  that  is  to  say,  a  marbling  going 
through  the  whole  substance,  was  never  made 
to  the  same  extent  as  marbling  on  the  surface. 
On  the  latter  Josiah  Wedgwood  made  some  of 
his  favourite  experiments,  and  he  imitated  very 
successfully  and  effectively  all  sorts  of  Agates 
and  hard  stones  by  running,  mixing,  and  spotting 
various  coloured  slips  upon  the  cream  colour. 
Nearly  all  the  potters  of  his  day  followed  his 
lead,  and  produced  many  surface  mixtures  which 
still  went  by  the  name  of  Agate,  although  the 
objects  on  which  it  was  used  would  be  more 
properly  described  by  the  name  of  "  marbled " 
ware. 

Reverting   to   the   history   of  the   improvements 


2  1 6  "  EARTHENWARE. 

brought  about  in  the  making  of  earthenware  and 
cream-colour,  we  think  we  could  not  do  better 
than  recall  the  names  of  some  of  the  most 
ingenious  potters  of  Staffordshire,  and  mention 
the  share  which  each  had  in  the  collective  move- 
ment. Two  names  stand  out  conspicuously  in 
the  numerous  lists  :  Astbury,  who  by  the  intro- 
duction of  flint  may  rightly  claim  to  have 
created  a  new  ware ;  and  Whieldon,  who,  a  few 
years  later,  brought  it  to  so  high  a  degree  of 
perfection,  by  the  care  he  bestowed  upon  its 
manufacture,  and  the  taste  he  displayed  in  the 
selection  of  his  models,  that  Josiah  Wedgwood 
found  little  to  improve  in  the  cream-colour  of  his 
day,  when  he  transformed  it  into  his  celebrated 
''  Queen's   ware." 

Had  Astbury  ever  thought,  like  Palissy,  of 
writing  his  "  memoirs,"  we  should  have  had  a 
book  which  would  not  have  yielded  in  romantic 
interest  even  to  the  autobiography  of  the  French 
potter.  The  business  of  a  pot-maker  was  then  a 
very  precarious  one.  No  man  who  was  ambitious 
of  making  a  fortune  would  have  embraced  that 
trade  ;  the  highest  position  a  workman  could  hope 
to  reach  was  that  of  owner  of  a  single  oven, 
turning  out  weekly  a  limited  quantity  of  goods  to 
be  sold  for  a  paltry  profit  to  the  cratemen,  or  at 
the  neighbouring  fair.  John  Astbury,  although  very 
young,  was  established  in  a  small  way  like  his 
fellow-workers,  and    he   seems    to  have  been  alive 


EARTHENWARE.  2  I  7 

to  the  unsatisfactory  state  of  the  manufacture  of 
his  time  ;  so,  when  the  Elers  had  settled  near 
Burslem,  he  could  not  help  contrasting  their 
delicate  productions  with  the  rough  and  common 
pottery  which  had  up  to  that  time  been  made 
around  him.  Leaving  his  unattractive  business, 
he  made  up  his  mind  to  worm  out  their  secrets, 
and  thus  enlarge  his  scanty  and  insufficient  know- 
ledge. What  hardship  he  had  to  go  through,  in 
order  to  get  admittance  into  the  premises  with- 
out exciting  suspicion,  has  been  often  related. 
For  two  years,  it  is  said,  he  feigned  idiocy  in 
its  most  abject  state,  until  at  last,  considering 
that  he  had  acquired  all  that  could  be  mastered 
from  his  employers'  processes,  he  threw  off  the 
disguise  and  set  to  work  earnestly  on  his  own 
account  in  quite  a  new  style,  with  all  sorts  of 
fresh  methods.  The  morals  of  the  time  admitted 
to  a  certain  extent  of  such  questionable  proceed- 
ings, especially  when  dealing  with  hated  foreigners. 
In  our  day  such  conduct  would  perhaps  be  dif- 
ferently regarded,  and  yet  there  is  more  than 
one  redeeming  point  in  the  case  of  Astbury. 
We  must  acknowledge  that  he  did  not  confine 
himself  to  reproducing  exactly  the  same  things 
he  had  seen  made  by  the  Elers,  He  originated 
more  than  one  style  of  his  own  by  mixing  up 
the  new  notions  with  the  old  ones.  He  estab- 
lished a  compromise  between  the  common  pieces 
of  dark  clay  glazed  with  galena,   and  the  refined 


2  1 8  "'  EARTHENWARE. 

and  highly  finished  ware  that  the  Dutchmen  had 
called  red  porcelain.  The  dense  and  dry  body 
of  his  masters  became  in  his  hands  a  red  glazed 
ware.  The  expensive  piece  was  altered  into  a 
nearly  similar  one,  which,  by  its  cheapness,  met 
the  wants  of  the  million.  New  articles,  such  as 
tea  and  coffee  ware,  dessert  plates,  and  similar 
pieces,  which  had  been  only  exceptionally  made 
before  his  time,  were  manufactured  by  him  in 
large  quantities.  New  clays  and  fresh  materials 
were  unceasingly  experimented  upon,  until  a  new 
body  was  at  last  established.  It  is  most  interest- 
ing to  follow  the  efforts  of  the  early  potter,  who, 
unable  to  diversify  his  productions  by  painting 
or  hand  decoration,  had  to  contrive  all  sorts 
of  combinations  of  clays,  to  give  them  a  little 
variety.  Llpilted  as  the  means  were,  very  varied 
in  effect  do  we  find  the  examples  that  belong 
to  the  same  period ;  they  present  every  possible 
arrangement  of  buff,  dark  yellow,  red,  brown, 
and  white,  being  sometimes  finished  off  with 
a  few  touches  of  under-glaze  colours.  Thus 
Astbury  tried  the  white  clay  employed  by  the 
pipe-makers  ;  but  before  being  able  to  produce  a 
good  ware  from  it,  he  only  used  it  at  first  for 
the  small  ornamentation  stamped  on  the  dark 
ground,  and  soon  after  as  a  wash  Inside  the 
vessels,  which,  though  made  of  red  clay  in  the 
bulk,  were  on  the  inside  coated  with  a  lining  of 
light  yellow.      But  what  entitles  him  to  the  grati- 


EARTH  EN  WARE.  2  I Q 

tude  of  his  contemporaries  and  successors  is  the 
fact  that  he,  who  had  taken  so  much  pains  to 
get  at  the  secrets  of  the  Dutch  potters,  does  not 
appear  to  have  made  a  mystery  of  all  that  it  cost 
him  so  much  to  acquire.  He  worked,  after  all, 
for  the  public  at  large.  Owing  to  his  sole  exer- 
tions the  whole  district  made  rapid  progress,  and 
all  the  craft  was  benefited  whenever  he  achieved 
some  fresh  discovery.  Modest  and  painstaking 
he  surely  was,  to  judge  from  the  manner  in 
which  he  conducted  his  pot  work.  It  is  even 
said  that  he  did  not  like  to  give  free  play  to  his 
inventive  genius  for  fear  of  upsetting  the  uses 
and  customs  of  his  fellow-potters,  and  thereby 
come  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  revolutionary 
character.  There  is  no  doubt,  however,  about  his 
having  been  an  enterprising  man  of  business. 
He  was  one  of  the  first  who  travelled  to  in- 
crease his  business  connection ;  and  at  a  time 
when,  on  account  of  the  bad  state  of  the  roads, 
travelling  was  attempted  by  but  few,  he  used  to 
make  regular  and  periodical  journeys  to  London 
and  the  large  towns  of  the  Midlands,  whither 
he  carried  himself  the  ingenious  patterns  he  had 
innovated  for  that  purpose  during  the  course  of 
the   year. 

Contrary  to  the  practice  on  the  Continent, 
where  each  manufacturer  limited  himself  to  a 
speciality,  the  English  potter  had  always  a  great 
variety   of    bodies   and    glazes   to    work    with    at 


2  20  earthenware! 

one  and  the  same  time.  Along  the  Rhine  is 
found  the  Gres  Stone-ware,  and  in  Holland  the 
white  faience  with  a  stanniferous  glaze  ;  each 
factory  of  Italy  kept  to  a  special  style  of  decora- 
tion, almost  sufficient  for  identification,  and  a 
great  difference  distinguishes  one  French  ware 
from  another.  If  we  take  such  potters  as  Astbury, 
Whieldon,  and  their  contemporaries,  we  find  that 
within  their  small  premises  all  sorts  of  ware 
were  concurrently  manufactured — red  or  black 
body,  either  .dry  or  glazed  ;  white  Stone- ware 
glazed  with  salt ;  cream-colour,  glazed  with  lead, 
plain,  and  coloured  with  tortoiseshell  enamels  ; 
even,  in  a  few  instances,  Delft-ware  with  blue 
painting. 

We  have  seen  that  towards  1720  Astbtiry  made 
his  name  famous  by  the  introduction  of  pounded 
flint  into  common  earthenware  ;  it  is  plain 
that  he  would  not  or  could  not  keep  the  secret 
of  the  discovery  to  himself,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  he  soon  allowed  it  to  spread  all 
over  the  Potteries^  and  this  is  clearly  shown 
by  the  patent  Benson  took  out,  in  1726,  for 
a  new  method  of  grinding  flint-stone ;  hereto- 
fore, it  Is  said,  iron  mortars  had  been  used  for 
that  purpose,  and  the  dust  produced  by  the 
pounding  was  most  injurious  to  the  health  of  the 
workmen.  Benson  conceived  the  idea  of  grind- 
ing it  under  water.  Astbttry  was  not  long  in 
realising   the    importance    of    the    invention,     and 


EARTHENWARE.  221 

flint  was  ground  in  that  way  for  the  first  time 
in  a  mill  erected  at  his  own  expense  at  a  place 
called  the  Ivy  House,  near  Hanley.  He  died  at 
Shelton,  in  1743,  being  then  65  years  of  age,  a 
rich  and  highly-considered  man,  at  the  same  place 
where  he  had  started  as  a  potter  in  such  humble 
circumstances.  The  site  of  his  factory,  which 
stood  near  the  church,  was  excavated  a  few 
years  ago,  and  many  fragments  were  found  by 
which  the  identification  of  his  productions  was 
greatly  facilitated.  He  left  three  sons  ;  one  of 
them,  Thomas  Astbury,  commenced  business  at 
Lane  Delph  in  1725;  he  still  further  improved 
upon  the  new  ware  invented  by  his  father,  and 
it  was  he  who  gave  it  the  name  of  "cream- 
colour." 

Of  Twyford,  who  also  played  the  part  of  an  idiot 
to  penetrate  into  the  Elers  secrets,  little  is  known  ; 
by  some  he  is  said  to  have  worked  conjointly 
with  Astbiiry,  by  others  to  have  had  a  factory  of 
his  own  in  the  same  town,  the  site  of  which 
belonged  to  TJiomas  Fenton,  the  brother  of  the 
poet.  A  small  jug  of  brown  ware  decorated  with 
slip  and  inscribed  with  that  name,  still  in  the  hands 
of  the  family,  is  the  only  authenticated  piece  of 
Twyfords  make  that  we  have  been  so  far  able 
to  discover. 

Of  Dr.  Thomas  Wedgwood,  and  of  his  making 
a  much  improved  ware  as  early  as  1731,  we 
have  already  spoken  ;    we  must  add  that  he  was 


222  EARTHENWARE. 

considered  the  best  potter  of  the  district/  The 
fragments  dug  out  on  the  site  of  his  works  at 
Burslem  testify  to  the  perfection  of  his  buff  and 
white  salt-glaze,  his  dry  red  body,  and  his  agate 
ware.  Charming  little  teapots  and  jugs  of  dark 
yellow  clay,  relieved  with  applications  of  white 
designs,  stamped  on  in  the  style  of  the  Elers, 
and  touched  up  with  flowing  colours,  seem  to 
have  been  his  favourite  speciality 

Ralph  Shaw,  of  Burslem,  had  his  short  days  of 
celebrity;  in  1733  he  patented  a  so-called  inven- 
tion for  making  a  chocolate  ware  coated  with 
white,  the  upper  coat  being  scratched  in  with 
lines  and  flowers  ;  of  this  we  have  already  spoken 
in  the  previous  chapter.  The  specification  of  his 
patent  was  so  worded  that  Shaw  thought  for  a 
time  it  wquld  give  him  the  right  of  prosecuting 
most  of  the  potters  of  the  district  for  infringe- 
ments. A  test  case  created  great  excitement  when 
it  came  on  for  trial  at  Stafford  ;  but  he  was  not 
able  to  substantiate  his  claims  to  any  exclusive 
rights,  the  process  he  revindicated  as  his  own 
having  been  used  long  before  by  Astbury,  and 
he  was  nonsuited.  In  his  disappointment  and 
humiliation  he  left  the  country,  and  emigrated  to 
France  with  his  family  ;  there  he  settled  and 
carried  on  his  trade.  It  would  be  interesting  to 
investigate  whether  it  is  to  him  that  is  due  the 
first  manufacture  of  the  French  "  Terre  de  pipe," 
and  other  imitations  of  English   ware.     We  know 


EARTHENWARE.  223 

that  a  company  of  Englishmen  established  a 
factory  at  Montereau  in  1775, — a  certain  Shaw 
was  one  of  them ;  but  whether  it  was  Ralph 
Shaw,  or  another  of  the  same  name,  we  have  had, 
so  far,  no  means  of  ascertaining.  To  his  name 
is  attached  a  really  valuable  and  practical  im- 
provement, the  introduction  of  the  "  slip  kiln." 
Previously  the  diluted  clay  had  to  be  evaporated 
in  the  open  air  in  large  tanks  called  '*  sun 
pans."  Not  only  was  the  evaporation  slowly 
effected,  but  the  slip  was  liable  to  be  spoiled 
with  dust.  Shaw  kept  it  under  cover  in  long 
troughs,  under  which  ran  a  row  of  flues  heated 
from  a  stove  outside ;  this  expeditious  process  was 
so  well  appreciated  that  it  was  at  once  adopted  at 
all  the  factories.  He  also  found  a  way  of  firing 
a  larger  quantity  of  ware  in  his  ovens,  by  placing 
the  pieces  inside  each  other,  ingeniously  parting 
and  propping  them  by  bits  of  stone-ware,  so  that 
they  could  not  stick  together,  an  invention  which 
led  to  the  stilts  and  cockspurs  of  to-day.  But 
notwithstanding  the  ameliorations  that  he  intro- 
duced in  the  trade,  by  which  his  contemporaries 
were  benefited,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  his  con- 
tentious spirit  may  have  checked  for  a  time  the 
course  of  improvements  pursued  by  other  potters, 
and  that  at  last  it  obliged  him  to  leave  the 
country  where  he  might  otherwise  have  attained 
to  wealth  and  consideration.  Part  of  his  family 
returned     to    Burslem    in     1750,    but    he    himself 


2  24  EARTHENWARE. 

remained    abroad,    and     nothing    is   known    as  to 
the   date  or   place   of  his  death. 

In  1736,  John  Mitchell  was  making  the  same 
description  of  ware,  and  was  one  of  those 
prosecuted  by  Shaw  for  infringement  of  his 
patent.  Great  attention  was  beginning  to  be 
paid  at  that  time  to  the  beauty  of  shapes  and 
models,  so  Mitchell  secured,  at  a  comparatively 
high  price,  the  services  of  Aaron  Wood,  the 
best  block-cutter  of  the  time,  in  order  that  he 
might  be  able  to  compete  with  Dr.  Thomas 
Wedgwood,    then   at   the   head   of  the   trade. 

In  1740,  Thomas  and  John  Wedgwood,  one  a 
skilful  fireman  and  the  other  a  lead-glaze  potter, 
established  themselves  at  Burslem.  The  first  few 
years  of  their  partnership  are  said  to  have 
brought  them  a  succession  of  losses  and  dis- 
appointments. This  caused  them  to  make  a  series 
of  protracted  experiments,  with  the  especial  view 
of  ascertaining  the  causes  of  the  many  accidents 
which  stood  in  the  way  of  perfect  production, 
and,  particularly,  the  liability  of  some  clays  to 
crack  more  than  others.  They  succeeded  in 
fixing  a  definite  scale  of  their  respective  qualities, 
and  arranged  them  according  to  their  order  of 
merit,  under  the  name  of  **  cracking  clays ; "  they 
also  proved  that  some  of  the  waters,  then  in- 
discriminately used,  were  unfit  for  potting 
purposes,  and  that  many  accidents  were  attribut- 
able   to     carelessness    on    this    point.     All   these 


EARTHENWARE.  225 

Studies  and  many  more  were  very  beneficial 
to  the  trade  in  general  ;  and  consequently, 
when  their  struggles  were  over,  and  all 
their  difficulties  had  been  surmounted,  owing 
to  the  exertions  of  these  two  potters,  the  craft 
again  advanced  another  step  forward.  Systematic 
rules  were  henceforth  adhered  to,  by  which  risks 
were  lessened,  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  profits 
largely  increased.  Their  cream-colour  was  con- 
sidered excellent,  and  they  exported  it  to  foreign 
parts  in  hitherto  unprecedented  quantities. 

Thomas  Whieldon  commenced  business  prior  to 
1740  at  Fenton  Low,  in  a  small  thatched  pot 
works  which  was  destined  gradually  to  expand 
into  one  of  the  most  important  manufactories  of 
the  time.  His  business  was  at  first  of  a  very 
modest  sort.  Carrying  his  samples  in  a  bundle 
strapped  to  his  back,  he  used  to  walk  from  one 
town  to  another  canvassing  for  orders.  He  made 
first  small  fancy  articles  for  hardware  men,  snuff- 
boxes that  were  mounted  in  metal  in  Birmingham, 
and  Agate-ware  knife-hafts  for  the  Sheffield 
cutlers.  Amongst  his  earliest  productions  may 
also  be  mentioned  the  quaint  little  figures, 
clumsily  made  up  of  separate  parts  of  brown 
and  yellow  clay,  some  of  which  are  pressed  in 
moulds,  while  the  others  are  made  by  hand. 
They  are  but  one  degree  removed  from  the 
figures  painted  on  the  slip  dishes ;  nevertheless, 
such   a   bit   of  old   pitcher  may   please   us   by   its 

'•  ^  OF 


2  26  EARTHENWARE. 

unpretentious  oddity,  and  we  cannot  think  of 
lamenting  the  absence  of  classical  learning  when 
it  makes  up  in  *'  naivet6 "  for  what  it  lacks  in 
correctness.  Thus  we  still  find  sets  of  hunts- 
men, musicians,  soldiers,  workmen  of  the  different 
trades,  and  also  a  very  characteristic  little  horse- 
man, the  figure  being  of  cream-colour,  richly 
enlivened  with  green,  yellow,  and  brown,  and 
the  horse  of  black  clay,  with  white  trappings. 
Children's  toys,  and  small  mantel-piece  ornaments 
were  also  made  at  the  same  time.  To  these 
he  soon  added  the  manufacture  of  table  and 
tea-ware,  mostly  tortoiseshell,  for  which  he 
acquired  such  a  reputation,  that  all  the  numerous 
specimens  of  his  style,  although  made  by  a  crowd 
of  imitators,  have  since  been  known  under  the 
name  of  Whieldon  ware. 

As  his  connection  increased,  he  built,  in  1749, 
large  additions  to  his  works.  Mr.  L.  Jewitt  i^Life 
of  Josiah  Wedgwood)  gives  some  interesting 
extracts  from  his  account  books,  and  several 
invoices,  which  show  us  the  sort  of  ware 
Whieldon  commonly  made.  While  other  potters 
were  pursuing  a  course  which  would  have 
ruined  the  trade,  by  underselling  each  other, 
and  turning  out  a  ware  so  coarse  and  clumsy 
that,  notwithstanding  its  cheapness,  it  was  on  the 
eve  of  being  abandoned  by  the  public,  Whieldon 
alone  resisted  this  backward  movement.  Besides 
continuing   the    best  traditions  of  his  predecessors, 


EARTHENWARE.  2  2  7 

and  using  the  same  processes  in  a  perfected  way, 
he  brought  out  many  ingenious  novelties  both  in 
shapes  and  materials.  He  was  assisted  by  the 
best  model  makers,  and  with  great  discrimination 
he  selected  his  apprentices  from  amongst  the 
most  intelligent  youths  of  the  district.  They 
profited  so  much  by  his  tuition  that  nearly  all 
of  them  were  eminently  successful  in  after  life. 
Josiah  Spode^  Robert  Garner,  J,  Barker,  and 
W,  Greatbach  all  made  a  name  for  themselves 
in  the  Potteries.  Josiah  Wedgwood  was  then 
twenty-four  years  of  age.  He  had  just  terminated 
his  first  partnership  with  Harrison,  of  Stoke,  and 
it  is  to  the  credit  of  W/iieldon  that  the  latter 
was  able  to  discern  and  appreciate  the  abilities 
of  the  young  potter,  and  that  he  secured  him 
as   a   partner   for  ^\^   years. 

It  would  be  very  interesting  to  discover  the 
share  he  had  in  the  production  of  Whieldons 
most  refined  pieces.  Wedgwood  was  already 
expert  in  all  the  branches  of  the  trade,  includ- 
ing throwing,  modelling,  and  the  compositions 
of  bodies  and  glazes.  He  spent  much  of  his 
time  in  the  first  years  of  their  partnership  in 
making  trials  and  preparing  blocks  and  moulds  ; 
and  it  is  not  improbable  that  some  of  those 
delicate  pickle  trays,  scalloped  plates,  perforated 
tea-pots  of  tortoiseshell  or  Agate-ware,  now  so 
highly    prized,  are    the    work   of  his   own   hands. 

More     will     no     doubt     be      known     to     us     in 
'7 


o 

228  EARTHENWARE. 

some  future  time  about  his  doings  at  Whieldons ; 
documents  of  that  period  are  not  wanting,  and 
many  fresh  ones  may  one  day  turn  up  and 
throw  more  light  on  the  subject.  We  know 
already  that  it  was  he  who  compounded  the 
bright  green  glaze  so  much  admired,  that  by 
itself  alone  it  caused  the  success  of  more  than 
one  pattern,  all  designed  to  show  it  off  to  advan- 
tage. The  cauliflower,  pine-apple,  and  melon  ware 
derived  their  charming  effect  from  the  green  glaze 
contrasting  with  the  cream-colour.  It  was  em- 
ployed in  various  ways ;  while  embossed  pieces 
were  mottled  with  green  and  yellow,  others  were 
covered  all  over  with  the  green  ground.  Mean- 
while the  earthenware  had  in  their  hands  become 
so  white  and  pure,  that  the  partners  were  proud 
of  showing  its  quality,  and  frequently  abstained 
from  hiding  its  creamy  tint  under  the  then 
fashionable  coloured  glazes.  They  seem  to  have 
often  preferred  making  another  kind  of  ware, 
more  quiet  in  colouration,  in  which  the  plain  clay 
was  reserved  for  the  ground,  while  parts  only 
of  the  reliefs  were  slightly  touched  up  with  a 
dash  of  brown,  yellow,  or  green ;  sometimes  a 
faint  cloud  of  grey  was  thrown  over  the  handles 
and  spouts.  These  latter  specimens  are  perhaps 
the  most  charming  of  all,  and  mark  the  approach- 
ing end  of  the  under-glaze  decoration,  to  which 
plain  earthenware  was  soon  to  be  preferred. 

In  the  first  edition  of  this  work  we  engraved  a 


EARTHENWARE.  229 

cream-colour  jug,  which,  by  a  piece  of  rare  good 
fortune,  we  have  been  able  to  identify  as 
Whieldons  own  manufacture.  The  pedigree  is  a 
very  humble  one,  but  the  piece  has  its  cre- 
dentials. It  was  made  in  1757  for  one  Ralph 
Hammersley,  who  was,  we  are  sorry  to  say, 
not  a  man  of  great  mark,  but  merely  Whieldons 
milkman !  Anything  better  made  than  this  jug 
cannot  be  imagined  ;  it  is  as  thin  and  true  as  if 
it  were  made  of  metal,  and  the  raised  decoration, 
all  applied  by  hand,  is  most  artistically  arranged. 
The  flowers  are  tinted  with  grey,  yellow,  and  green 
glazes  ;  the  monogram  and  date  are  painted  with 
red  clay,  a  combination  of  processes  not  uncom- 
monly seen  on  the  works  of  this  potter.  The 
method  of  applying  or  **  sprigging "  the  reliefs 
pressed  in  separate  moulds  of  highly-fired  clay 
is  one  of  the  great  characteristics  of  English 
pottery.  It  continued  to  be  practised  after  the 
plaster  moulds  had  come  into  use,  and  Wedgwood 
adhered  to  it  for  his  Jasper  ware ;  in  no  other 
way  could  he  have  obtained  the  unrivalled  sharp- 
ness of  his  raised  figures  and  ornamentation. 

After  a  few  years  of  association,  tradition, 
which  represents  Whieldon  as  a  very  prudent 
and  cautious  man,  says  that  he  was  not  sorry 
to  part  from  his  young  partner,  of  whose  daring 
and  enterprising  spirit  he  was  rather  afraid.  Not 
wishing  to  embark  in  any  other  new-fangled  enter- 
prises, but  being  satisfied  with  making  money,   as 


230  EARTHENWARE. 

he  had  always  done,  by  pursuing  quietly  the 
unexhausted  vein  of  his  former  success,  he  pre- 
ferred breaking  the  partnership,  some  say  even 
before  the  term  of  the  agreement  had  expired. 
We  can  hardly  credit  this  statement  when  we 
see  with  what  untiring  energy  Whieldon  had  so 
far  endeavoured  to  advance  his  art,  and  steadily 
kept  at  the  head  of  his  contemporaries.  By 
him  the  foreign  trade  was  largely  increased,  and 
from  his  time  Staffordshire  ware  was  sent  all 
over  the  world.  Many  of  his  pieces  are  still 
found  in  distant  parts.  Our  friend,  Dr.  I.  Lyons, 
of  Hartford,  U.S.,  has  been  able  to  form  a 
collection  of  tortoiseshell,  cauliflower,  and  other 
varieties  of  the  time,  with  specimens  picked  up 
in  the  cottages  of  Connecticut.  Near  the  place 
where  once, stood  his  thatched  pot  works,  Whieldon 
built  for  himself  a  large  and  elegant  house,  which 
is  still  standing,  and  where  he  died  in  1798,  at  a 
very  advanced  age. 

No  sooner  had  the  manipulative  and  other 
processes  reached  the  point  at  which  it  was 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  further  improve 
upon  them,  than  the  potter  turned  his  attention 
to  a  selection  of  the  models  best  calculated  to 
bring  out  all  their  qualities.  The  tortoiseshell- 
ware,  with  its  variety  of  colours,  lent  itself  to 
all  sorts  of  combinations,  and  a  special  treatment 
was  required  for  the  modelling  of  the  pieces 
intended  to  be  so  decorated.     The  old  potter  was 


EARTHENWARE.  2  3  I 

either  his  own  modeller,  or  at  least  employed 
none  but  those  who  had  been  brought  up  in 
the  trade,  first  as  common  workmen,  then,  fol- 
lowing a  special  aptitude,  had  subsequently  drifted 
into  that  branch  of  the  art.  None  was  better 
qualified  than  the  practical  man  to  contrive  a 
design  adapted  to  the  means  at  his  disposal. 
He  cared  little  for  imitating  the  works  of  other 
people  or  other  countries,  but  consulting  only 
his  own  taste,  and  profiting  by  the  efforts  of 
his  fellow-workers,  his  style  was  rational  and 
genuine,  being,  above  all,  appropriate  to  the 
ways  and  means  by  which  the  work  was  to  be 
produced. 

It  was  then  that  the  modeller  came  to  the 
front ;  the  best  makers  endeavoured  to  secure  at 
any  cost  the  exclusive  assistance  of  those  who 
promised  to  become  the  most  ingenious  artists. 
A  decided  tendency  towards  fancy  shapes,  and 
the  picturesque  in  ornamentation,  began  to 
show  itself  even  in  the  most  ordinary  pieces. 
A  tea-pot  assumed  the  look  of  an  attractive 
and  dainty  litde  toy,  and  we  hear  of  the 
gallants  of  London  offering  to  their  lady-loves 
pretty  tea-pots  of  Staffordshire  ware.  The 
hackneyed  ornaments,  which  had  been  handed 
down  from  father  to  son,  were  discarded  by  the 
rising  generation,  and  new  ideas,  as  well  as  new 
men,  kept  apace  in  the  march  of  progress.  Leaves 
and    fruits    were    the     inexhaustible     stock     from 


232'*  EARTHENWARfi. 

which  the  artist  drew  at  first  most  of  his  inspira- 
tions. A  pickle  tray  was  formed  with  a  common 
leaf  (Fig.  50),  delicately  marked  with  all  its  vein- 
ing,  and  glazed  with  its  natural  colour,  and  in  the 
centre  a  few  buds  and  flowers  were  symmetrically 
disposed  for  the  purpose  of  securing  a  variety  of 
tints.     A    fruit — the   pine-apple   for   instance — was 


Fig.  50.    ToRTOiSESHELL  Leaf.— Coll.  L.  S. 

transformed  into  a  jug  or  a  cup  ;  the  upper  part, 
with  its  lozenge-shaped  imbrications,  received  the 
yellow  glaze  they  knew  so  well  how  to  make 
rich  and  bright,  while  their  dark  green  glaze 
seemed  especially  intended  to  reproduce  the  vivid 
colour  of  the  pointed  leaves  ornamentally  arranged 
underneath  (Fig.  51).     The  same  notions,  applied 


EARTHENWARE. 


233 


to  the  reproduction  of  a  melon  resting  on  its  leaf, 
inaugurated  another  style  of  ware.  Treated  in 
various  ways,  the  pieces  upon  which  this  fruit 
was  introduced  all  went  by  the  name  of  melon- 
ware,  and  so  were  styled  also  the  generality  of 
pieces  mottled  green  and  yellow. 

From  the  imitation  of  common  fruits  and  vege- 
tables the  potters  derived  their  most  successful 
patterns. 


Fig.  51.    PiNE-APPLK  Jug.— Coll.  L.  S. 


Cauliflower-ware  was  manufactured  in  enormous 
quantities,  and  in  many  sizes  and  shapes.  Its 
novelty  and  originality  remain  striking  even  to 
our  day.  The  potters  took  a  just  pride  in  the 
perfection  of  their  cream-colour  body  and  their 
green  glaze.  Nothing  simpler  could  have  been 
devised  to  bring  out  their  quality  and  contrast 
them   together.      How  well  the  one  comes    in    to 


234-  EARTHENWARE. 

represent  the  flowers  with  their  smooth  emboss- 
ments and  their  thousands  of  minute  dots,  and 
the  other  to  cover  with  a  mellow  and  powerful 
colour  the  net-work  of  sunk  and  raised  lines  that 
veins  the  curled  leaves !  The  execution  is  as 
simple  and  forcible  as  the  idea.  It  has  just  the 
amount  of  conventional  treatment  that  a  work  of 
art   demands   to   become   a    **Type."      There   are 


'    Fig.  5a.    Cauliflower  Tea-pot.— Coll.  L.  S. 

many  more    pretentious    pieces  which  have  fewer 
claims     to     be     spoken    of     in     the     same     way 

(Fig-    52). 

A  French  author  says  that  he  who  creates  a 
new  proverb  does  more  for  the  advancement  of 
human  wisdom  than  they  who  write  exhaustive 
books ;  in  the  same  way,  a  man  who  invents 
a   new   type   might   be  said   to   do   more   towards 


EARTHENWARE.  235 

improving  the  art  of  his  time  than  another  who 
achieves  a  skilful  and  elaborate  work.  This,  we 
think,  holds  good  with  respect  to  the  industrial 
artist  who  chances  to  hit  upon  an  idea,  so  well 
calculated  to  please,  that  its  successes  will  afford 
employment  to  a  large  number  of  his  fellows. 
How  many  workmen  in  the  Potteries  were  kept 
employed  in  reproducing  the  first  cauliflower  pieces, 
the  happy  thought  of  some  unknown  block  cutter  ! 
The  idea,  as  we  have  seen,  was  turned  to  all 
sorts  of  purposes,  and  for  a  time  all  the  makers 
manufactured  cauliflower  ware  with  ever-increasing 
success. 

Fancy,  cramped  a  little  by  the  requirements  of 
table-ware,  found  an  unlimited  scope  for  its  display 
in  the  merely  ornamental  articles  that  were  already 
in  demand  ;  quaintly  modelled  by  local  artists, 
and  made  pleasant  with  the  brightest  hues  of 
underglaze  colour,  all  sorts  of  household  and  toy 
pieces  were  made  ;  strange  birds,  curious  animals, 
hippopotami  and  elephants,  hanging  vases  bearing 
a  large  sunflower,  which  would  have  delighted 
the  modern  aesthete,  flower  vases  for  the  decora- 
tion of  the  mantel-piece,  even  small  figures,  busts 
or  medallions  of  the  king  and  queen,  and  of  the 
worthies  of  the  day.  We  must  also  mention  the 
wares  made  in  imitation  of  Chinese  porcelain  ; 
although  they  purport  to  be  decorated  with  apple 
blossoms  and  mandarins,  they  are  rather  original 
fancies    derived    from  a    curious   style   imperfectly 


2  3^  EARTHENWARfe. 

Studied,  than  the  actual  copy  of  any  particular 
piece.  Upon  them  all  the  English  hand  is  easily 
traceable ;  but,  instead  of  being  content  with  a 
mere  imitation  of  the  commonest  productions 
of  the  East  in  the  simple  way  that  had  at  first 
been  followed,  Whieldon  endeavoured  to  reproduce 
those  which  looked  most  complicated.  Some  tea- 
pots are  perforated  and  cut  all  over  the  surface, 
exhibiting  an  unusual  amount  of  ingenuity  and 
skill,  and  must  once  have  been  considered  marvels 
of  workmanship.  They  are  made  in  a  double 
shell,  the  outer  one  being  pierced  according  to  a 
design  of  leaves  and  apple  blossoms  disposed 
for  that  purpose  ;  this  cutting  out  covers  the 
shape  with  a  sort  of  lace-work,  very  light  in 
appearance,  and  the  peculiar  tints  of  English 
tortoiseshell-ware  impart  to  the  whole  a  look  of 
originality  which  makes  one  forget  that  the  piece 
was  an  imitation.  Perforated  tea-pots  of  the 
same  description  are  also  found  in  a  dry  red 
body.  The  effect  produced  by  that  outward 
piercing  is  at  once  so  charming  and  surprising  to 
one  who  does  not  comprehend  how  it  can  be 
executed,  that  we  have  seen  the  process  revived 
many  times  at  different  places,  and  always  given 
out  as  a  fresh  invention.  We  must  not  forget  to 
mention  the  large  two-handled  cups  which  took 
the  place  of  the  discarded  Tyg.  In  the  improved 
household  foreign  wines  had  replaced  the  homely 
ale,  and   a  light  and   handsome   vessel  had  to  be 


EARTHENWARE.  237 

provided  instead  of  the  heavy  posset  pot.  Those 
that  have  come  down  to  us  are  remarkably  well 
turned  and  finished  ;  they  were  used  as  loving 
cups  or  wine-coolers  ;  a  climbing  vine  spreads  its 
branches  and  tendrils  all  over  the  outer  surface  ; 
to  the  stems,  made  by  hand,  leaves  and  bunches 
of  grapes  have  been  stuck  at  intervals.  If  any 
meaning  is  attached  to  the  decoration,  we  may 
surmise   that   the    time-honoured    beer    and    spice 


Fig.  53.    ToRTOisESHBLL  Cup.— Coll.  L.  S. 

mixture  was  not  to  be  brewed  in  this  cup  ;  at  all 
events,  the  most  fastidious  man  could  be  ade- 
quately gratified  by  possessing  such  a  nicely  made 
piece  of  bright  earthenware,  when  he  was 
debarred  by  his  means  of  boasting  of  such  luxuries 
as  a  silver  or  a  china  bowl. 

Of  all  these,  many  identical  replicas  are  still 
to  be  met  with  ;  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that 
as   yet   painting,   which    can   indefinitely   vary  the 


2  3  8"  EARTHEN  WAR'E. 

aspect  of  the  same  piece,  had  not  come  to  the 
potter's  assistance ;  moulded  shapes  and  raised 
decorations  were  alone  resorted  to,  and  the  effect 
could  merely  be  diversified  by  the  stains  of  the 
mottled  glazes  (Fig.  53). 

It  is  somewhat  provoking,  when  we  know 
most  of  the  names  of  the  tortoiseshell  potters, 
to  be  unable  to  ascribe  accurately  to  any  of  them 
the  different  specimens  that  we  value  and  admire  ; 
no  mark  ever  appears  to  help  us,  and  none  ever 
thought  of  following  the  practice  of  Toft  by 
signing  their  best  works.  A  piece  of  handiwork 
showing  an  individual  taste,  or  a  certain  amount 
of  skill,  is  always  exceptionally  valued  in  com- 
parison with  what  has  been  done  to  a  pattern. 
Hence  it  was  that  the  old  Slip  dishes  generally 
bore  the  name  of  the  maker,  who  was  proud  to 
affix  his  signature  to  those  unwonted  proofs  of 
his  talent.  Whether  incomplete  or  imperfect,  these 
works  were  unreservedly  admired  by  the  possessor, 
who,  no  doubt,  had  never  seen  them  surpassed  ; 
and  as  most  of  them  are  perforated  for  suspen- 
sion, we  may  suppose  they  were  kept  as  desirable 
ornaments,  and  not  intended  to  be  put  to  any 
practical  use.  When,  in  course  of  time,  the 
process  of  casting  and  moulding  permitted  the 
reproduction  of  the  same  piece  by  the  score,  the 
potter  did  not  think  it  worth  while  to  sign  them 
any  longer ;  it  was  only  as  a  safeguard  against 
imposition,  and    as    a   necessity  of  the  trade,  that. 


EARTHENWARE.  239 

many  years  later,  Josiah  Wedgwood  thought  of 
marking  with  his  name  the  productions  of  his 
manufactory.  Artistic  property  was  in  no  way 
protected,  perhaps  not  even  acknowledged  ;  as 
soon  as  a  model  enjoyed  a  run  of  success,  it 
was  at  once  taken  up  by  a  crowd  of  imitators. 
WJiieldon  used  to  bury  his  imperfect  pieces,  lest 
they  should  be  picked  up  and  copied,  but  it  was 
an  ineffectual  precaution  after  all,  and  his  happiest 
novelties  soon  fell  a  prey  to  the  plagiarist. 
Pirating  other's  ideas  and  shapes  was  con- 
sidered almost  legitimate ;  we  know  that  later 
on  many  manufacturers  thrived  upon  designs 
borrowed  from  Wedgwood  s  productions.  The 
poor  struggling  potter,  who  could  not  keep  a 
modeller,  depended  for  his  forms  upon  the 
assistance  of  his  wealthier  brethren,  and  took 
from  him  his  best  models,  with  or  without  his 
permission,  in  the  same  manner  as  a  workman 
who  in  our  days  sets  up  in  a  small  way  of 
business  on  his  own  account,  asks  a  neighbour 
for  the  loan  of  his  blocks  to  make  moulds  from. 
We  can  only  distinguish  the  early  pieces  from 
those  made  long  afterwards  in  the  old  moulds, 
by  their  being  cast  instead  of  pressed,  and  there- 
by being  much  thinner  in  the  substance. 
Impressed  in  terra-cotta  moulds,  the  ornaments 
are  neater  and  sharper,  the  thick  glaze  is  of  a 
deeper  tint,  and  the  colours  run  more  freely. 
Some    are    stamped    with    seals    like    the   *'  Salt- 


24^  EARTHENWARE. 

glaze,"  and  partly  made  by  hand ;  all  of  them 
are  "  potted  "  with  a  skill  and  care  often  wanting 
in  more  modern  productions. 

The  reliefs  are  often  stamped  on  a  black 
ground,  or  the  whole  piece  is  mottled  with 
manganese  ;  in  these  cases  they  were  decorated 
with  size  gilding,  or  gold-leaf  fixed  with  a  hard 
varnish.  It  was  only  towards  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  that  the  burning  in  of  the 
gold  was  known  in  the  Potteries.  Imperfect  as 
this  mode  of  gilding  may  have  been,  yet  it  had 
one  quality,  it  was  transparent  and  mellow  in 
colour,  and  looked  certainly  more  like  the 
Oriental  gold  than  the  burnished  metal  employed 
at  a  later  period  upon  china  ;  on  most  pieces  it 
has  now  disappeared,  or  only  faint  traces  remain 
of  it  in  places. 

Painting  on  cream-colour,  which  was  soon  to  be 
so  generally  practised,  was  also  introduced  when 
the  body  had  been  made  white  enough  to  re- 
semble china  more  closely.  This  whitening  was 
obtained  by  the  mixing  of  a  small  quantity  of 
zaffre  with  the  glaze  ;  and  this  innovation,  con- 
tinued to  our  time,  was  due  to  Aaron  Wedgwood 
and  William  Littler,  who  were  also  the  first  to 
glaze  their  ware  by  immersion.  Certain  proportions 
of  the  glaze,  of  the  clay  which  composed  the  body 
of  the  pottery,  and  a  small  quantity  of  zafTre  were 
mixed  with  water  ;  in  this  liquid  the  vessels,  when 
dry,    were    dipped,    and    absorbing   the    water,  re- 


EARTHENWARE.  24 1 

ceived  a  thick  coating  of  the  ground  materials 
in   suspension. 

Shortly  after  this,  Enoch  Booth  began  the 
practice  of  firing  his  ware  before  dipping  it ; 
we  accept  this  on  the  testimony  of  Shaw,  notic- 
ing at  the  same  time  that  firing  in  biscuit  was 
practised  by  all  the  makers  of  Delft-ware. 

Towards  1750,  R,  and  T,  Baddeley,  of  Shelton, 
made  the  first  attempts  at  blue  painting  under 
the  glaze,  and  the  process  was  adopted  by  all  the 
other  potters. 

Enamelling  on  cream-colour  was  successfully 
carried  on  at  the  same  period  by  Mrs.  War- 
burtoji,  who  is  credited  with  having,  in  1751, 
made  the  last  improvement  in  earthenware 
bodies ;  she  acquired  a  great  celebrity  for  her 
painting,  and  until  1769  she  enamelled  {or  Jo siah 
Wedgwood, 

Another  enamel  painter  was  Warner  Edwardsy 
of  Hanley ;  he  not  only  worked  himself,  but 
supplied  the  trade  with  colours  of  his  own 
making.     He  died  in   1753. 

When  painting  came  into  fashion,  few  trained 
hands  could  be  obtained  in  the  Potteries  ;  many 
were  sent  for  from  Holland,  where  there  was  a 
superabundance  of  clever  men  ;  this  may  in  some 
measure  account  for  the  small  degree  of  originality 
noticeable  on  the  painted  pieces,  when  compared 
with  those  modelled  and  embossed  according  to 
the    traditional    style   of  the   old    English    potter ; 


242  EARTHENWARE. 

here  we  may  incidentally  remark  that  England 
was  not  the  only  country  which  borrowed  her 
ceramic  painters  from  abroad.  In  the  records  of 
the  old  Saint  Lucas  Guild,  the  Academy  of 
Delft,  to  which  the  best  faience  decorators  were 
affiliated,  many  of  the  names  inscribed  as  mem- 
bers, as  far  back  as  1645,  ^^^  those  of  foreigners 
who  had  come  from  France  and  Italy. 

From  this  time  pottery  will  lower  itself  into 
becoming  the  humble  retainer  of  aristocratic 
porcelain ;  the  body  will  try  to  ape  the  white- 
ness of  its  prototype,  if  not  its  transparency  ; 
blue  painting  will  adopt  the  Worcester  style ; 
enamel  decoration  will  emulate  the  works  of 
Bow  and  Chelsea,  and  thus  become  a  second- 
hand imitation  of  Oriental  china.  The  lead-glaze 
and  the  smooth  surface  of  the  cream-colour  were 
perfectly  adapted  to  kiln  painting,  and  this  sort 
of  decoration  was  at  first  fairly  used,  but  as  it 
could  only  by  its  cheapness  compete  with  the 
china  it  was  intended  to  replace,  nothing  of 
importance  was  ever  attempted.  A  bright  iron 
red  was  often  used  alone  or  relieved  with  a  few 
touches  of  varied  colours ;  Dutch  landscapes  or 
grotesque  scenes  were  sometimes  freely  sketched, 
and  groups  of  flowers  were  painted  with  bright 
enamels  in  a  conventional  manner.  We  give  here 
(Fig.  54)  the  sketch  of  a  loving  cup,  probably  a 
presentation  piece,  enamelled  in  colours  ;  on  one 
side  with  a  coat  of  arms,  of  which  we  have  only 


EARTHENWARE.  243 

been  able  to  trace  two  of  the  quarterings :  Brete, 
and  Pershall  Bart,,  both  families  belonging  to 
Staffordshire;  and  on  the  other  side,  with  the 
monogram  E.  G.,  and  the  date  1770.  However,  as 
pieces  of  this  sort  generally  belong  to  the  second 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  they  hardly  come 
within  our  scope,  and  we  %hall  not  linger  on  the 
subject ;    let   it    suffice   to   say   that    the    style   of 


Fig.  54.    Crbam-colouk  Two-handled  Cup.— Coll.  L.  S. 

painting  was  gradually  simplified,  and  the  transi- 
tion can  easily  be  traced  from  the  over-decorated 
pieces  to  the  plain  earthenware,  merely  edged 
with  a  brown  or  blue  line,  that  was  soon  to 
come  into  fashion. 

Meanwhile,   the   tortoiseshell-ware    continued    to 

be  made,  but  the  best  efforts  were  brought  to  bear 
18 


244*  EARTHENWARfe. 

upon  the  new  bodies,  and  the  old  style  was'  losing 
some  of  its  primitive  character ;  the  peculiar 
carving  of  blocks  and  **  pitcher "  moulds,  and  the 
engraving  of  ornament  sunk  in  the  hollow,  were 
given  up  as  being  too  slow  and  expensive,  when 
the  introduction  of  plaster  of  Paris  gave  facilities 
for  casting  moulds  at  "a  trifling  cost,  upon  any 
model  whatsoever,  whether  it  was  a  piece  of  metal, 
china,  or  wood  carving,  little  regard  being  paid 
to  its  fitness  for  reproduction  in  clay.  Though 
the  advantageous  properties  of  plaster,  its 
capability  of  taking  an  impression,  and  its  por- 
ous substance  which  so  rapidly  absorbs  the  water, 
had  been  known  for  a  long  time  previously  in 
the  Potteries,  it  was  utilized  but  at  a  compara- 
tively late  period.  A  cream-colour  tea-pot  In  the 
Liverpool  Museum,  with  an  embossed  barley 
pattern,  has  an  inscription  scratched  on  the 
bottom,  stating  that  this  was  the  first  tea-pot 
ever  pressed,  dated  and  signed  **  J.  Hollingshead, 
175..."  The  simple  and  well-adapted  types 
created  in  the  locality  gave  way  to  more  am- 
bitious models  ordered  from  sculptors  in  London, 
who  had  never  before  thought  of  applying  their 
talent  to  this  new  purpose.  Tea-pots  and  jugs 
began  to  assume  rustic  and  ultra-picturesque 
decorations,  and  to  depart  widely  from  geometrical 
and  rational  shapes. 

We   do   not  mean  to  say  that  fine  and  interest- 
ing   pieces    are    not    to    be    found    amongst    those 


EARTHENWARE.  245 

resulting  from  this  transformation  of  the  Potter's 
style  of  modelling.  The  old  man  with  short 
legs  and  ample  waistcoat,  whose  cocked  hat  has 
been  turned  into  use  for  a  spout — the  figure  which 
constitutes  the  traditional  Toby  jug,  and  is  the 
direct  descendant  of  the  Stone-ware  Bellarmines 
— evinces  a  quaint  spirit  of  originality  (Fig.  55). 
Some  groups  were  admirably  modelled,  and  with 
a    genuine    sense  of    humour.      The   Sexton   and 


Fig.  55.    Toby  Jug.— Coll.  L.  S. 

the  Parson  going  home  arm-in-arm  after  a  late 
supper ;  the  Vicar  asleep  in  his  pulpit,  while 
from  underneath  Moses  vainly  endeavours  to 
prompt  him  with  the  next  sentence  of  his 
sermon ;  the  Voyez  jug,  with  the  huntsman  and 
the  milkmaid,  of  which  Dr.  Diamond  has  an 
example  coloured  with  the  most  harmonious 
combinations    of    tortoiseshell    glazes — these,    and 


246  EARTHENWARE. 

many  others  of  the  same  kind,  though  of  a  date 
that  brings  them  near  to  our  own  time,  were 
still  done  with  the  old  cream-colour,  and  stained 
with  the  softly-mottled  glazes  used  by  Whieldon. 
We  possess  a  tea-pot  in  the  shape  of  a  head, 
which,  although  not  of  a  very  early  period,  is 
evidently  cut  by  a  working  potter,  and  not 
modelled  by  an  educated  artist ;  it  is  remarkable 
for  a  feeling  of  originality,  not  at  all  lessened 
because  the  maker  may  have  been  actuated  by 
the  idea  of  emulating  some  antique  vessel  once 
seen  and  almost  forgotten.  The  head,  perhaps  a 
local  portrait,  has  the  English  periwig ;  the 
peculiar  notching  of  the  eyebrows  and  the 
character  of  the  ornamentation  exclude  the 
supposition  of  it  being  a  copy,  but,  as  is  the 
case  with  *  the  Greek  sculptures,  an  unconscious 
simplification  in  the  rendering  of  natural  forms 
changes  into  a  work  of  high  art  that  which,  in 
a  more  realistic  period,  would  only  be  vulgarity 
and  grotesque  fancy  ;  it  is  in  this  respect  nearer 
to  the  works  of  the  ancients  than  many  other 
pieces  which  can  boast  of  being  more  faithful 
reproductions.  All  that  we  have  just  described 
is  different,  in  our  estimation,  from  the  clumsy 
comicalities,  made  afterwards  with  white  ware 
coloured  on  the  surface,  which  are  known  by 
the   name   of  Staffordshire  figures. 

In  our   judgment,  an    absolute  line  of  demarca- 
tion  separates  the  productions,  however  imperfect, 


EARTHENWARE.  247 

of  an  art  which  kept  steadfastly  advancing  In  an 
original  path,  free  from  the  intrusions  of  foreign 
notions,  from  those  of  a  complex  style,  perhaps 
more  correct,  but  which,  after  all,  is  only  the 
fruit  of  studies  often  incomplete  or  ill-under- 
stood, and  which  admits  of  an  admixture  of 
totally  irrelevant  elements.  When,  for  instance, 
we  are  pleased  with  the  best  pieces  of  English 
Salt-glaze  or  tortoiseshell,  we  never  think  of 
comparing  them  with  any  pieces  belonging  to 
another  nation  ;  they  stand  apart,  and  are  to  be 
taken  as  they  are ;  they  may  at  least  be  con- 
sidered as  the  highest  expression  of  a  genuine 
taste,  the  development  of  which  we  can 
trace  from  its  most  uncouth  and  inexperienced 
early  attempts.  We  feel  a  sense  of  disappoint- 
ment and  even  of  annoyance  when  we  detect 
signs  of  a  natural  feeling  having  been  perverted 
by  extraneous  teaching.  Acanthus  leaves  are  ill 
at  ease  on  a  Staffordshire  tea-pot,  and  we  are 
disheartened  when  we  recognise  upon  the  features 
of  an  otherwise  coarse  and  vulgar  figure  a  faint 
likeness  to  the  Greek  nose  and  the  eye  of 
Apollo.  In  one  case  we  have  a  standard  steadily 
advancing,  in  the  other  we  have  a  decline  savour- 
ing slightly  of  caricature. 

But  we  are  overstepping  the  bounds  of  our 
subject.  It  is  not  our  purpose  to  follow  the 
transformations  of  the  Potter's  art  after  the 
middle    of    the    eighteenth   century,    the   close   of 


248  EARTHENWARE. 

the  epoch  to  which  our  investigations  are  limited. 
We  must  now  briefly  say  that  since  that  time 
earthenware  pottery  has  thrived  and  flourished 
under  the  hands  of  innumerable  skilful  manufac- 
turers, and  has  rapidly  become  the  staple  trade  of 
all  the  English  pottery-producing  centres,  from 
which  it  has  spread  to  many  places  on  the 
Continent,  and  even  to  the  United  States.  A 
list  of  all  those  who  had  a  hand  in  its  im- 
provement would  be  endless,  as  also  would  an 
enumeration  of  the  places  where  it  has  been 
manufactured   since    1750. 

The  limits  we  have  thus  imposed  upon  our- 
selves put  beyond  our  range  the  admirable  works 
of  the  greatest  potter  of  England,  Josiah  Wedg- 
wood, Of  his  innumerable  achievements  it 
would  be  unbecoming  to  speak  in  an  inadequate 
manner,  and  his  life  must  be  read  in  the 
exhaustive  books  which  have  been  devoted  to 
his  memory.  For  the  same  reason  we  are  pre- 
cluded from  speaking  of  the  earthenware  of 
Liverpool,  where  almost  all  descriptions  of  Pottery 
were  manufactured ;  of  the  cream-colour  of 
Leeds,  which  equalled,  if  it  did  not  surpass,  the 
finest  ware  previously  made  at  any  other  place ; 
and  of  a  host  of  Potters  established  all  over  the 
kingdom,  whose  names  are  mentioned  and  pro- 
ductions described  in  the  works  written  on  the 
subject.  Many  interesting  discoveries  must  be 
passed  over.      We  should  like  to  relate   how  the 


EARTHENWARE.  249 

transfer  of  a  black  print  to  the  surface  of  a 
glazed  piece  gave  rise  to  a  new  mode  of  decora- 
tion ;  how,  shortly  afterwards,  under-glaze  printing 
superseded  painting  in  blue,  and  a  bright  and 
complicated  pattern  being  thus  obtainable  at  a 
small  cost,  a  revolution  was  accomplished  in  the 
decoration  of  earthenware ;  but,  however  enticing 
the  subject,  we  cannot  attempt  to  treat  of  it  here. 
Our  account  has  come  to  an  end  ;  the  old 
English  Potter,  with  his  quaint  ways,  is  replaced 
by  the  educated  manufacturer  with  eclectic  taste ; 
but  let  us  remember  that  we  owe  much  to  the 
intelligence  and  energy  with  which  his  modest 
forerunners'  prepared  the  way  for  the  excellence 
now  attained.  If  this  imperfect  essay  helps  to 
bring  to  light  their  merits  and  originality  ;  if  it 
can  be  accepted  as  a  tribute  to  the  memory  of 
these  neglected  workmen  and  artists,  who  in 
their  secluded  pot  works  were  once  exerting  their 
ingenuity,  and  who  bequeathed  to  us  the  fruits 
of  their  labours,  the  writer's  most  earnest  hopes 
will  have  been  realised,  and  his  effort  will  not 
have   been   made   in    vain. 


APPENDIX. 


FOREIGN     IMITATIONS     OF 
ENGLISH     EARTHENWARE. 


Opinion  entertained  in   France  on  English  Flint  Ware 

TOWARDS   THE    END   OF   THE   LAST  CeNTURY. — EMIGRATION    OF 

English  Operatives. — "Terre  d'Angleterre"  manufac- 
tured AT   Paris. — Edme. — Saladin,   of  St.   Omer. — 
Peterinck,  of  Tournav. — The  Brothers  Boch,  of 
Septfontaine  and  Longwy. — Charles  Bayard,  of 
Bellevue. — Shaw,    at   Montereau. — Desseaux 
de  Romilly  and  Asselineau  Grammont,  of 
Orleans. — The  Moulins,  of  Apt. — Ch.  and 
J.  Leigh,  at  Douai. — Lanfrey,  at  Nifder- 
villier. — Potter,    Prince    of    Wales 
Works,  at  Paris.— Ollivier  and  Des- 
PRES,  AT  Paris. — Royal  Manufac- 
tories OF  Sevres  and  Buen-Re- 
TiRO. — De  Bettignies,  of  St. 
Amand  — Pierre  Senly,   of 
Nevers  ;    Vavasseur,    of 
Rouen. — Francis  War- 
burton,  AT  La  Chakite 
sur  Loire — Arend 
DE    Haak,    of 
Delft. 


APPENDIX. 


FOREIGN     IMITATIONS     OF 
ENGLISH  EARTHENWARE. 


INCE  we  did  not  omit  to  render  to 
the  foreigner  such  credit  as  is  due  to 
him  for  the  importation  of  many  new 
kinds  of  processes  which  at  one  time 
had  benefited  the  potting  trade  of  England  and 
assisted  its  development,  it  is  but  fair  that  we 
should  also  mention  the  many  instances  of 
Englishmen  settling  abroad  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  the  English  manufacture  ;  it  is 
almost  a  duty  to  relate,  however  briefly^  when 
and  where  they  settled,  bringing  with  them  the 
secrets  of  making  a  new  sort  of  earthenware, 
which   answered  better  than   any  other  the  wants 


25'4  APPENDIX? 

of  the  time,  and  in  so  doing  to  assert  to  what 
an  extent  the  Continent  remains  indebted  to  our 
potters.  We  shall  endeavour  to  show  in  what 
follows  that,  if  much  had  been  once  borrowed, 
much  has  been  given  in  return,  and  the  debt 
can  now  be  considered  as  cancelled  and  paid  in 
full. 

So  much  was  the  English  "  faience "  admired 
and  sought  after  during  the  eighteenth  century, 
that  the  French  government  had  thought  it 
prudent  to  check  the  earliest  attempts  of  its 
importation,  first  by  taxing  it  with  an  almost 
prohibitory  duty,  and  finally  by  striking  it  with 
absolute  prohibition.  To  that  effect  were  succes- 
sively enacted  the  "decrets"  of  1740,  1749,  and 
1785;  but  in  the  succeeding  year,  1786,  the 
policy  was  reversed,  and  in  accordance  with  the 
liberal  movement  which  was  beginning  to  shatter 
all  the  old  institutions,  protection  was  completely 
abandoned ;  henceforth  the  English  ware  was  to 
be  admitted  on  payment  of  a  small  duty  of 
twelve  per  cent.  It  is  most  interesting  to  read 
the  protestations  In  which  the  whole  trade  vented 
their  grievances  on  the  occasion  of  these  new 
tariffs.  They  state  in  the  most  bitter  terms  that 
competition  is  no  longer  possible  for  the  home 
manufacture.  And  indeed  to  the  facility  given 
to  importation  of  foreign  articles  was  afterwards 
attributed  the  closing  of  the  factories  of  Rouen, 
Nevers,  as   well    as   of  the   other  potting  centres, 


APPENDIX.  255 

culminating   in    the    utter    ruin    of  that   branch   of 
French    industry. 

To  describe  the  opinion  entertained  in  France 
upon  the  merits  of  the  imported  ware,  we  can- 
not do  better  than  quote  the  following  paragraph, 
extracted  from  one  of  the  Ceramic  Essays  of 
the  Chemist  Fourmy,  In  his  **  Memoire  sur  les 
Hygiocerames,"  presented  to  the  French  Academy 
in  1801,  he  says:  "While  faience  kept  labouring 
under  the  sway  of  ancient  routine,  adhering  to 
its  coarse  and  vulgar  shapes,  and  porcelain  was 
trammelled  with  all  the  drawbacks  resulting  from 
its  want  of  ductility  and  great  vitrification,  neither 
of  them  attempting  to  indulge  in  any  freedom 
or  refresh  their  old-fashioned  style,  English 
earthenware,  unfettered  with  any  of  these  diffi- 
culties, offered  to  the  appreciation  of  the 
consumer  new  and  elegant  shapes,  all  the  more 
seducing  that  they  were  accompanied  with  an 
unwonted  lightness.  How  could  it  have  been 
possible  to  resist  admiring  so  charming  a  novelty, 
especially  when  it  possessed  besides,  and  as 
a  further  recommendation,  the  great  merit  of 
cheapness." 

We  shall  now  briefly  record  the  names  of  the 
most  important  places  where  this  manufacture 
was  first  introduced,  as  the  first  materials 
brought  together  towards  a  history,  still  to  be 
written,  of  the  English  potters  who  successfully 
established  their  trade  in  distant  countries,   where 


2  5^  APPENDIX."^ 

very  different  sorts  of  wares  had  for  centuries 
remained  unrivalled.  We  have  met  with  the 
names  of  very  few  who  had  previously  made  a 
mark  amongst  their  countrymen,  but  one  may 
easily  surmise  that  it  could  not  have  been  the 
well-known  manufacturer  who,  generally  success- 
ful in  his  speculations,  would  have  left  his  home 
to  hazard  his  fortunes  abroad  ;  this  was  rather 
to  be  expected  of  some  obscure  manager  or  work- 
man, who,  however  skilled  and  thoroughly  expert 
in  all  the  branches  of  the  art,  and  boasting  of  a 
knowledge  acquired  from  the  most  accredited 
masters,  could  not,  perhaps  for  want  of  capital 
or  other  causes,  come  to  the  front  amongst  his 
own  people.  To  modest  operatives  may  thus  be 
traced  the  origin  of  such  celebrated  manufactories 
as  those  of  Montereau,  Longwy,  Sarregue- 
mines,  Bordeaux,  and  a  host  of  minor  ones 
which  started  everywhere  on  the  foreign  principles, 
not  only  making  the  new  ware  according  to  the 
fashion  practised  in  England,  but  also  on  the 
example  of  the  British  manufactories,  being  man- 
aged in  a  more  business  like  manner.  Capital 
was  largely  and  judiciously  invested,  extensive 
and  suitable  premises  were  erected,  science 
and  machinery  were  called  to  the  assistance 
of  the  practical  potter,  and  the  best  artists 
were  commissioned  to  supply  models  answering 
a  more  refined  taste.  In  this  manner  were 
created  the    important    manufactories    which    were 


APPENDIX.  257 

destined  to  absorb,  in  their  increasing  pros- 
perity, all  the  small  pot  works  with  which  France 
abounded. 

Taking  by  order  of  dates  the  names  recorded 
in  the  industrial  history  of  France,  we  find  one 
Edrne  directing  the  "  Manufacture  Royale 
d'Angleterre,"  in  Paris,  at  a  period  which 
corresponds  to  the  last  improvements  in  cream- 
colour  by  Whieldon,  and  long  before  the 
importation  of  Wedgwood's  Queen's  Ware.  A 
guide  book  of  Paris,  published  in  1745,  tells 
us  that  it  was  situated  in  the  Rue  de  Charen- 
ton,  and  table  ware  was  especially  manufactured 
there.  Early  as  this  date  may  appear,  we  must 
however  bear  in  mind  that  Ralph  Shaw  had 
left  Burslem  with  all  his  family  for  the  purpose 
of  settling  abroad  more  than  ten  years  previously. 
So  far  documents  are  wanting  to  show  whether 
he  had  any  hand  in  the  establishment  of  that 
"  Manufacture  d'Angleterre,"  but  that  much  may 
be  surmised,  as  we  lose  traces  of  him  until  he 
reappears   at    Montereau   in    1775. 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, the  **  Terra  d'Angleterre "  manufactured 
in  Paris  was  much  valued.  Several  pieces  of 
it  are  described  in  the  inventory  of  the 
Chateau  of  Versailles,  and  the  Duke  of  Aumont 
possessed  two  fine  vases  with  bronze  mount- 
ings, which  at  his  sale  fetched  the  sum  of  300 
livres. 


25^  appendix: 

Saladin,  of  Saint  Omer,  received,  ill  1745, 
letters  patent  to  make  faience  after  the  manner 
of  Holland,  and  Stone-ware  imitating  that  of 
England.  We  must  remark  here  that  the  name 
of  "  Gres  Anglais "  was  generally  applied  in 
France   to   the    English   flint-ware. 

Peterincky  of  Tournay,  had  engaged  so  many 
workmen  to  come  over  from  England,  that  in 
1759  the  town  council  decided  that  an  English 
Jesuit  should  be  sent  for  at  the  expense  of  the 
town,  to  instruct  and  convert  these  workmen 
and  their  families  to  the  Catholic  religion. 
They  were  granted  many  privileges ;  one  of 
them  named  Phoenix  was  for  many  years  freed 
from    paying   any    taxes. 

The  brothers  Boch,  after  some  abortive  trials 
in  France,  began  at  Septfontaine,  in  Luxem- 
bourg, an  important  manufacture  of  **  Faience- 
fine,"  or  cream-colour,  towards  the  year  1767, 
and  later  on  added  to  their  establishment  that 
of  Longwy,  both  of  which  are  still  prospering 
in   the   hands   of  the   same   family. 

Charles  Bayard,  of  Bellevue,  near  Toul, 
obtained  for  his  works,  in  1772,  the  title  of 
**  Royal  Manufactory,"  as  a  reward  for  his 
successful  production  of  fine  ware  of  white  pipe 
clay.  This,  imitated  in  several  places,  became 
soon  the  staple  trade  of  the  province ;  there  were 
made  those  dinner  services  and  glazed  ornaments, 
as    well    as    those     figures    in    white     biscuit,     so 


APPENDIX.  259 

widely   known    and    appreciated    under    the    name 
of  "  Terre   de    Lorraine." 

Shaw,  and  his  partner,  William  Clark,  of 
Newcastle,  after  having  experimented  at  Lille 
and  other  places,  settled  at  Montereau  to  manu- 
facture English  earthenware  ;  and  two  ordinances, 
dated  1775,  granted  to  the  company  several 
privileges,  besides  which  they  were  for  many 
years  in  receipt  of  an  annual  subsidy  of  1,200 
francs.  A  branch  of  the  same  factory  was 
subsequently  established  at  Creil,  and  both 
branches  have  continued  to  prosper  and  increase 
up   to  the   present   day. 

Desseatix  de  Romilly  obtained  for  his  factory 
at  Orleans  a  privilege  for  making  a  faience  of 
purified  white  earth,  or  cream-colour,  and  at 
the  same  time  Asselitteau  Grammont,  also  of 
Orleans,  was  turning  out  various  sorts  of  wares 
of  coloured  bodies,  or  marbled  in  imitation  of 
English    ware. 

The  Moulins,  at  Apt,  in  Provence,  had  towards 
the  same  period  brought  that  same  process  of 
marbling  on  cream-colour  to  the  highest  degree 
of  perfection,  this  style  of  decoration  having 
probably  been  spread  all  over  France  by  the 
workmen  who  had  at  first  practised  it  in  the 
northern  provinces.  The  persecution  directed  in 
England  against  the  Roman  Catholics,  which 
began  in  1778,  and  culminated  in  the  Gordon 
riots  in  1780,  resulted  in  a  numerous  emigration 
19 


260 


APPENDIX-. 


of  English  operatives,  who  had  to  take  *  refuge 
on  the  Continent,  and  finding  there  permanent 
employment  in  the  factories,  vulgarised  the  ways 
and    uses    of  the    trade    of  their   own    country. 

Amongst  those  who  settled  in  the  north  we 
shall  mention  Charles  and  Jacques  Leigh,  who 
set  up  an  important  manufactory  at  Douai,  where, 
in  partnership  with  Hoiizd  de  rAMlnoy,  they 
were,  towards  1780,  making  delicate  snuff  boxes, 
dainty  little  pieces  of  perforated  cream-colour  and 
agate  ware,  as  well  as  a  large  quantity  of  table 
ware  and  ornamental  articles.  This  decoration 
by  marbling  in  clay  acclimatized  itself  in  the 
province,  where  it  went  by  the  name  of  *'gaiol6," 
a  local  term  for  motley.  Following  up  all  the 
practices  of  the  English  potters,  they  stamped 
their  ware  with  their  name  impressed  in  the 
clay,  and  it  is  not  uncommon  to  find  their  pieces 
bearing   the   name  of  Leigh    &   O^- 

At  Niedervillier  the  fabrication  of  stanniferous 
faience  was  abandoned  in  1785,  to  be  super- 
seded by  that  of  flint-ware,  under  the  manage- 
ment of  Lanfrey,  who  advertises  in  the  *'  Tableau 
du  Commerce "  his  English  earthenware,  which, 
he  says,  '*  is  for  form,  colour,  and  hardness,  quite 
equal    to    that   of   England." 

Potter,  also  an  Englishman,  established  in 
1789  a  factory  in  the  Rue  de  Crussol,  at  Paris, 
which  he  called  the  "  Prince  of  Wales  Works,'* 
and    claimed    a   privilege  for  having  been  the  first 


APPENDIX.  261 

to  practise  In  France  decoration  by  transfer 
printing.  Joseph  Mayer,  in  his  history  of  the 
Liverpool  Potteries,  says  that  an  engraver  named 
Abbey,  who  had  served  his  time  with  Sadler, 
went  to  Paris  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  the 
art  of  engraving  and  transferring  the  prints  on 
earthenware.  We  feel  inclined  to  think  that  it 
was  in  connection  with  the  enterprise  mentioned 
above,  though  positive  proofs  are  still  wanting. 
Potter  signed  his  ware  with  his  full  name 
stencilled    underneath. 

To  OLlivier,  Rue  de  la  Roquette,  at  Paris, 
was  granted  a  patent  in  1791,  for  his  imitations 
of  Wedgwood  ware,  black  and  cane  bodies,  and 
also  for  his  reproductions  of  white  and  blue 
jasper  for  medallions  and  buttons.  In  the  year 
1797,  Desprds  is  spoken  of  as  manufacturing  the 
same  articles  with  great  ability,  at  his  works  of 
the  Rue  de  Lancry.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
Royal  Manufactory  of  Sevres  had  already  tried 
to  imitate  with  white  and  blue  porcelain  the 
much  admired  cameos  and  plaques  of  Wedgwood 
jasper,  and  that  they  were  frequently  introduced 
in  the  decoration  of  the  costly  fqrniture  of  the 
period.  At  Buen-Retiro  white  and  blue  cameos 
were  also  made,  and  Charles  IV.  had  a  whole 
room  decorated  with  them,  in  the  part  of  the 
Escurial   erected   during  his   reign. 

A  glance  at  the  catalogues  of  the  products  of 
French    factories,    published     at    the     end     of    the 


265 


APPENDIX.  • 


last  century,  will  convince  us  of  the  change 
undergone  by  the  public  taste.  For  instance,  in 
the  list  of  articles  made  and  sold  at  St.  Amand 
by  De  Bettignies,  nothing  is  mentioned  but  what 
is   made    **  fa^on  Anglaise." 

Small  factories  sprung  up  at  that  time  in  every 
direction,  and  in  the  once  prosperous  towns 
where  the  now  discarded  faience  had  been  for 
so  long  the  staple  trade  of  the  place,  ineffectual 
attempts  were  made  to  cope  against  a  ruinous 
competition,  by  introducing  the  new  fashioned 
ware  by  the  side  of  the  lingering  old  one. 
Thus  we  find  the  names  of  Pierre  Senly,  at 
Nevers,  in  the  year  1795,  and  of  Vavasseur,  at 
Rouen,  1788,  connected  with  some  attempts  at 
producing  English  earthenware ;  but,  as  in  the 
case  of  La  Charite  sur  Loire,  where  Francis 
War  burton,  of  Hot-lane,  set  up  a  factory,  which 
from  1802  to  18 1 2  was  making  cream-colour 
and  Egyptian  black  basalt,  success  does  not  seem 
to  have  attended  their  speculation.  The  new 
ware  could  not  thrive  on  old  grounds ;  there 
the  new  notions,  hampered  by  the  old  routine, 
could  not  develop  themselves,  the  ruin  could 
not  be  averted,  and  the  trade  departed  from 
those  places  to  be  transferred  to  the  rising 
localities  where  the  spirit  of  enterprise  had 
started   anew   upon   a   completely   fresh    track. 

This  hasty  nomenclature  would  have  to  be 
extended     far   beyond   our   present   purpose,    were 


APPENDIX.  263 

we  to  mention  the  many  instances  of  importa- 
tion of  the  English  process  on  the  Continent. 
In  Sweden,  Spain,  Italy,  and  Germany,  they  were 
numerous.  We  shall  merely  refer  the  reader  to 
the  local  histories  in  which  they  are  recorded. 
Yet  we  cannot  omit  to  recall  the  striking  fact 
of  the  downfall  of  Delft,  a  town  where  potting 
was  once  so  flourishing  that  the  place  could 
boast  of  being  the  largest  centre  of  production 
in  the  whole  world.  Towards  the  end  of  the 
last  century  the  trade  was  dwindling  away  with 
rapidity,  nearly  all  its  establishments  had  been 
closed.  In  the  Staffordshire  Potteries,  Turner, 
of  Lane  End,  was  manufacturing  large  quantities 
of  table  ware  expressly  for  the  Dutch  market, 
and  the  last  of  the  painters,  still  remaining  at 
Delft,  found  a  precarious  living  in  decorating 
those  services  in  the  questionable  style  then 
prevailing  in  Holland,  Specimens  are  still  com- 
monly met  with,  mostly  decorated  with  the 
portrait  of  William  of  Orange,  outlined  in  black 
with  a  pen  and  rudely  coloured  over  with  red, 
yellow,  and  green.  Arend  de  Haak  thought  he 
could  retain  something  of  what  had  been  the 
source  of  riches  in  his  town,  by  transforming 
his  factory,  and  hoped  that  by  employing  Eng- 
lish workmen  he  should  be  able  to  compete  with 
the  fashionable  importation.  But  his  attempts,  as 
well  as  those  of  some  of  his  countrymen,  were 
doomed    to    fail  ;    no  efforts    could    delay    the    ruin 


264" 


APPENDIX. 


of   the  old  fabrics,   nor  stop  the  rising  fortunes  of 
the  new  ones. 

More    causes    than    one    may    account    for    the 
revolution   which    was    thus    accomplished    in    the 
potting  trade;  we  must  acknowledge  that  it  is  not 
altogether  to  the  appearance  of  English  ware  upon 
the  Continental  markets  that  it  may  be  attributed. 
A    great     reason    for     the     change    in   the    public 
taste     can     be    traced    to    the   facility  with    which 
the     more     handsome     and     valuable     translucent 
porcelain    began    to    be    produced   in  Europe,  and 
substituted    its    elegant    and    refined    material    for 
the      heavy      and     ponderous     substance     of    the 
stanniferous    faience.      However,    no    one    can    fail 
to    be   astonished    at   the   rapidity   with   which    the 
flint    ware,     glazed    with    lead,    invented     by    the 
old     Staffordshire    potter,     supplanted     in    France 
and   other   countries,    whether   under  the  name  of 
Terre    de    pipe,    Faience    fine,   Gres   Anglais,   or 
Cailloutage,    the    many   products   which   had  found 
their   glorious   origin   on   the    soil.      In    the   same 
manner   was   transformed   the    process   of    decora- 
tion ;  and  the  new  mode  of  decorating  by  transfer 
printing,    which     is     every    day    used    more    and 
more   extensively,   is  an  indirect  homage  rendered 
to   the   ingenuity   of  the   invention    of  Sadler  & 
Green,    of   Liverpool.      Indeed,    we   go  so   far   as 
to    say    that,    actuated    by   a   feeling   akin    to    that 
which    prompts    man     to   revere   and   worship   the 
memory    of   his    ancestors    and    all    that    has    been 


APPENDIX.  265 

handed  down  to  him  from  them  (if  such  a  feeling 
was  still  lingering  in  our  age),  all  of  us  who  are 
connected  with  pottery,  either  as  manufacturers, 
collectors,  or  artisans,  should  enshrine  in  our  best 
cabinet  and  treasure  as  inestimable  relics,  the 
works  of  the  early  English  potter,  from  which  are 
undoubtedly  derived  our  modern  fabrics. 


GENERAL     INDEX. 


Agate  Ware,  212. 
A  St  bury  (T.),  potter, 

216. 
Astbury  Ware,  212. 


137,  164,207, 


Ba£ckus(T,\  potter,  168. 
BaddeUy  (R.  &  J.),   potters,    163, 

167,  176,  241. 
Barren  (W.  E.),  merchant,  27, 
Bear  Jugs,  46,  179. 
^^// (Samuel),  potter,  215. 
Benson^  his  patent,  220. 
Baling  {T.),  his  patent,  165. 
Booth  (E.),  potter,  207,  241. 
Bottcher  Ware,  132. 
Black  Ware,  enrly,  17,  209. 

„  Elers,  129. 

Block  and  mould  making,  157,  160. 
Brackets  in  the  British  Museum,  19. 
Bradwell  Wood,  124. 
Brampton  Ware,  47. 
Bristol  Delft  Ware,  108,  in. 
Buckley  Slip  Ware,  57. 


Cauliflower  Ware,  223. 

Chesterfield  Ware,  47. 

Clay  moulds,  156. 

Coat  of  Arms  on  Salt-glaze  ware, 

174. 
Coat  of  Arms,  on  cream-colour,  243. 
Conventual  Pottery,  14. 
Copper  moulds,  156. 
Cradles  (Slip  decorated),  77. 


Cream-colour,  first  mention   of  the 

name  applied  to  the  ware,  221. 
Crouch  Ware,  133,  154. 


Daniel^  potter,  187. 
Delft  Ware  in  Holland,  97. 
its  body  of  glaze,  98. 
made  in  England,  97,  102. 
dishes,  109. 

in  Staffordshire,  112,  181. 
its  imitation  with  the  "dip  " 
process,  113. 
,,     its  combination  with  Salt- 
glazing,  180. 
Doulton  Ware,  48. 
Dwight  (John)  his  patent,  30. 

„       contract  with  the  London 

glass  sellers,  31. 
„       establishment  of  his  factory 

at  Fulham,  31. 
„       his  books  of  recipes,  32. 
„       his  Porcelain,  34,  35. 
,,       Stone-ware  Figures,  37. 
„       Bottles  and  common  ware, 
39,241. 


Earthenware  in  England,  201. 

,,  on  the  Continent,  20 r. 

„  first    improvements   in 

Staffordshire,  205. 
,,  its  varieties,  231. 

,,  the  liquid  glaze,  240. 

„  painting  on,  242. 


26^ 


GENERAL    INDEX. 


Edwards  (Warner),  potter,  241. 
ElerSy  their  family,  122. 
„     (Peter),     his    naturalisation, 

122. 
„     (John  Philip),  123. 
,,     leaves  Staffordshire,  138. 
,,     settles  in  Dublin,  139. 
Elizabethan  Pottery,  19, 

,,  the  name  given  to  Salt- 

glaze  ware,  151. 
Enamelling  on  Salt-glaze,  184. 

,,  its  various  styles,  189. 

Exportation  of  English  Ware  in  the 
i6th   and    17th     cen- 
turies, 20. 
„  in  the  i8th  century,  164, 

230. 


Flint  Ware,  made  by  Astbury,  220. 
Fmfzks  (K,),  potter,  108. 
Fulham  ^'  trouvaille,"  37. 
Fulham  Works,  31,  41. 


Galena  Glaze,  87. 

Garnet  Tynes,  merchant,  27. 

German   Stone-ware  imported, 

26. 
Gilding,  190. 
Glass  (Joseph),  potter,  76 
G.  R.  Jugs  and  Mugs,  184. 


Heath  (T.),  potter,  108,  181. 
Hogarth's   Midnight     Conversation 
on  a  Salt-glaze  mug,  173. 


Inscriptions  (Slip),  82,  89. 

„  (English  Delft),  1 14. 


Jackfield,  Salt-glaze  made  at,  192. 
Johnson  (T.),  on  a  Slip  dish,  75. 
Jugs  (Slip  decoiated),  83. 
full,  potter,  55. 


Kent,  Slip  Ware  made  in,  54. 


Lambeth  Ware,  105,  iii. 
Leeds,  Salt-glaze  made  at,  192. 
Littler  [yN.),  potter,  167. 
Liverpool  Delft  Ware,  105. 
„         Salt-glaze,  193. 


Marbkd  Ware,  71,  215. 
Mediaeval  Pottery,  13. 
Metal  Mounts,  89. 
Miles,  potter,  43. 
Mitchell,  potter,  224. 
Mortlake  Ware,  loS. 


Names  of  Mediaeval  vessels, 
Norman  Pottery,  11. 
Nottingham  Ware,  43. 


15. 


Palmer,  potter,  133,  151. 

Pennington,  Potter,  107. 

Pewter  Mounts,  27. 

Phoenician  Pottery  imported  in  Eng- 
land, 9. 

Pipeclay,  152,  208. 

Place  (F.),  his  ware,  42. 

Plaster  Moulds,  155,  161,  190. 

Porcelain — the  name  applied  to 
various  sorts  of  ware,   132. 

Portobello  Ware,  142. 

Posset  Pots,  69. 

Pre-historic  Pottery,  4. 

Pressing  introduced,  244. 


Ramsey  (D. ),  his  patent,  30. 

Red  Porcelain,  of  the  Elers,  125, 
130. 

Red  Porcelain,  of  the  successors 
to  the  Elers,  131,   141,   154. 

Redrich  (R.),  his  patent,  211. 

Riggs  (Ch.),  pipe-maker,  152. 

Robinson  {].),  painter,  107. 

Roman  Pottery,  9. 

Roux  (T.),  and  A.  CulleUy  mer- 
chants, 29. 

Sack  Bottles,  loi. 
Sans  (W.),  potter,  75. 
Salt-glaze  Ware,  150,  193. 

,,  its  body,  152. 

,,  its  varieties,  177. 

Salt-glazing — its  introduction  in  the 

Staffordshire  Potteries,  133,   150, 

152. 
Salt-glazing — the  process,  148. 
Scratched  Blue  Ware,  180. 
Sgrafiato,  or  Scratched  Ware,  83. 
Shaw,  of  Liverpool,  potter,  107. 
Shaw  (R.),  his  patent,  166,  222. 
Shapes  of  Old  English  Pottery,  64. 

„     peculiar   to   Salt-glaze  Ware, 
168. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


269 


Simpson  (W.),  merchant,  27. 
Simpson  (R.),  potter,  78. 
Slip  Decoration,  the  process,  52,  62. 
„  used  by  the  Romans, 

,,  on  the  Continent,  54, 

Slip  Dishes,  made  on  a  form,  86. 
Slip  Ware  at  the  present  time,  93. 
Stamped  Ware,  129,  155. 
Staffordshire  Pot  Works  in  the  17th 

century,  59. 
Staffordshire  Figures,  245. 
Stone-ware,  25. 

„         in  the  Midland  Counties, 
47. 


Taylor  (W.),  potter,  76. 
Taylor  (G. ),  potter,  76. 
Tickenhall  Ware,  57. 
Tiles,  medijeval,  14. 

,,     Salt-glaze,  191. 
Tobacco  Pipes,  152. 
Toby  Jugs,  245. 
Toft  (Thomas),  potter,  72. 
7<7//  (Ralph),  potter,  75. 
Toft  Ware,  8a 
Tome  Jansz,  painter,  100. 
Tortoiseshell  Ware,  210. 


Tudor  Pottery,  18. 
Twy/ord,  potter,  137,  221 
Tygs,  65. 


Upchurch  Pottery,  10. 


Vvn  Hamme  (John  Arien),  potter, 

loi,  103,  in. 
Vauxhall  Ware,  108. 


Warburton  (Mrs.),  potter,  241. 
Warner^  clay  importer,  100. 
Wedgwood  {kaixou)^  potter,  240. 
Wedgwood   (Dr.    Thomas),    potter, 

166.  212,  221. 
Wedgwood     (Thomas    and    John), 

potters,  166,  224. 
Whieldon,  potter,  225. 

,,         his      partnership       with 
Josiah  Wedgwood,  227. 
,,         his  productions,  229. 
WW  (Aaron),  potter,  167,  176. 
Wrotham  Ware,  54. 


Yorkshire  Slip  Ware,  56. 


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tired R.  A. ;  ItiviERE,  Briton,  K.  A. ;  Stone,  Marcus,  A.  R.  A. ;  Storey,  G.  A.,  A.  R.  A. ; 
Thornycroft.  W.  H.,  A.  R.  A. ;  Watts,  O.  F.,  R.  A. ;  Webster.  T.,  Hon.  Retired  R.  A. ; 
Yeames,  W.  F.,  R.  a.  ;  also  the  Right  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone,  M.  P.,  Professor  of  Aucient 
History  to  the  Royal  Academy,  in  iiis  study. 

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riKht  to  advance  the  price  at  any  time. 

HOURS  WITH  ART  AND  ARTISTS.  By  G.  W.  Phkldon.  With 
Twelve  Engravings  on  Steel,  and  Eighty-nine  Illustrations  on  Wood.  Impe- 
rial 4to.     Cloth,  extra  gilt,  $7.60. 

The  principal  artists  represented  in  this  book  are  Ronjrucreaa,  Rosa  Bonheur.  Dor6, 
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Couture,  Ziimacols.  Vihert.  M«'i8-onnier,  Birket  Foster,  Landelle,  Tonlmonche,  Bridgninn, 
Beckwith,  Clmt«e,  Swain  (.iifford,  Colman,  Winslow  Homer.  Qiiartley.  Wyatt  Eaton,  Thayer, 
and  Mornn.  the  illustrations  being  in  nearly  every  case  flgure-f*uhjects.  Many  of  the  pict- 
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THE    TURNER   GALLERY.      A  Series  of  One  Hundred   and  Twenty 

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OUR  NATIVE  LAND;  OR,  GLANCES  AT  AMERICAN  SCENERY  AND 
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REPUBLICAN  COURT;  OR,  AMERICAN  SOCIETY  IN  THE  DAYS  OF 
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-     •-.  TTT  ;.tr--  -  ^^-— ^— — ^  13--  • — — 

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BERKELEY 

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